ex

TOO

CAVEN LIBRARY

KNOX COLLEGE
TORONTO

LOYOLA:

AND

JESUITISM IN ITS RUDIMENTS

BY

ISAAC'TAYLOR,

AUTHOR OF THE "NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM.'

NEW YORK:

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 285 BROADWAY.

1849.

/Jltffr

PREFACE.

IT seems due to the reader, as well as to myself, to explain-
briefly at least — the intention which led to the production of the
volume now put into his hands. Regarded by itself, this outline
of the Life and Institute of Loyola would probably give rise to an
entire misapprehension of my purpose.

It might be supposed that I had wished, at a moment of political
and ecclesiastical commotion, to step forward and signalize my
Protestant zeaL in an assault upon the ever to be dreaded " Society
of JCFUS." This is not the fact. I have little or no faith in the
beneficial tendency of assaults upon particular systems, supposed
to be of mischievous quality. Nor, even if I might hope to render
some service to Protestantism by attempting a direct attack upon
its opponents, do I think that Jesuitism, in particular, could, at this
time, substantiate its claim to be singled out as the most to be feared
among the antagonists of truth. Although far from entertaining
the belief that Jesuitism is about presently to disappear, I could not
consent to give it a foremost place in the list of things especially
formidable.

On the contrary, it is because Jesuitism is now, as I think, falling
into its place among schemes that may be analyzed without alarm,
and that may be treated, in all calmness, according to its merits,
that I have selected it from among those institutes which are still
extant, and likely to subsist a while, and to exert some dying in
fluence, although they be hastening to their end. The same might
be said, at this time, of all those products of the middle ages, or of
the season of convulsion which brought the mediaeval era to a close ;
— namely, that, as things about to " vanish away," they offer them
selves as fit objects of tranquil and instructive contemplation.

So far as it may be possible, in a comprehensive manner, to com
pare our own times with past ages, a difference presents itself which
is highly characteristic, and full of meaning in relation to the future.
It is this, that — whereas each revolution of opinion, and each signal
event, hitherto marking the intellectual and religious history of Eu
rope, has borne the impress of individual minds, or perhaps of some
one mind, so that a great name stands as the symbol of theories,
systems, communions — now, the influence of individual men seems
to have ceased almost to make itself felt in any such manner. The
course of events, and the progress of opinion, is the tide wave of a
mighty ocean, in relation to which the very mention of individual
agency would sound like a mockery. In times past great minds led

IV PREFACE.

a host; and gave their names to the regions that had been opened,
or conquered, under their guidance. But now it seems task enough
if we can bring ourselves to contemplate, with serenity, and to com
prehend, the giddy tossings— the reeling to and fro— of the social
system.

In presence of these vast and ominous convulsions — what is the
pulpit — or the press even — or what the consultations of good men
in committee 1 They are little more than what the very same
means of influence would be, if opposed to the storm-borne swell
of the Atlantic ! Ominous convulsions, we may call them, and yet
are they not auspicious 7 for, at a time when man is thus compelled
to confess his impotence, may not the intervention of Omnipotence
be so much the more confidently looked for?

But the cessation — or the apparent cessation — of human agency,
as related to the movements and progress of the moral system, seems
to invite attention to the times when its power was at the height;
and when the individual peculiarities and the personal history of
illustrious men gave a well-defined direction to the mind of nations,
and left a. strongly marked image upon their forms of belief, and upon
their permanent' institutions. As Christian men we are all now
living in the light (or under the shadow) of great names. Our
faith, and our worship, and our usages, are all emblazoned, as with
the armorial bearings of our religious ancestors.

The present religious existence of the European commonwealth
— if indeed the continental nations may be said to retain any of the
elements of a religious existence — various as it is in its features,
might be described under the designation of some twelve or twenty
illustrious leaders of past times. Nothing on any side exists which
might not fairly be brought under review in connection with a
name, or which would-not involuntarily suggest itself to every well-
informed mind — on the mere mention of such a name.

I will confess, then, to have entertained the idea of bringing the
several existing religious systems under separate review — each con
sidered as the product of the mind which, principally, gave it its
form and character. The execution of a task such as this, in a
manner fully proportioned to its magnitude and importance, would
demand qualifications to which I make no pretension. The quali
fication which I do profess, and apart from which such a task as
suredly should not be attempted, is— on the one hand, a profound
belief of the truth of that Gospel which "is not of man" — and, on
the other, a thorough freedom of mind, in relation to all those forms
of Christianity which bespeak a lower origin. I. T,

Stanford Rivers, March 26, 1849.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE Page iii.

PART I.

PERSONAL HISTORY.

Chapter Page

I. Loyola, and the relative position of his system . 7

II. Loyola's early years, and conversion ... 28

III. Loyola's attempt to convert the Mahometan world,

and the failure of the enterprise .... 64

IV. Loyola, in preparation for the work to which he de

votes himself, goes to school at Barcelona, and else
where 80

V. Loyola's colleagues, and the birth of the Society . 102

VI. Loyola's election to the generalship of the Society . 132

VII. Loyola's government of the Society . . . 156

VIII. Loyola's mind 199

PART II.

JESUITISM IN ITS RUDIMENTS.

Chapter

I. The " Exercitia Spiritualia" 215

II. The " Letter on Obedience" 273

III. The " Constitutions" 301

IV. The purport of the Jesuit Institute .... 346
V. Pascal, and the " Provincial Letters" . . . 376

NOTES . 393

LOYOLA.

PART I.

PERSONAL HISTORY

CHAPTER I.

LOYOLA, AND THE RELATIVE POSITION OF HIS SYSTEM.

THE lapse of even so long a period as three cen
turies has not in every instance been enough to
place a great name beyond the reach of political or
religious prejudices ; nor indeed can any such ob
livion of undue aversions, or relinquishment of par
tialities equally undue, be well looked for in the
case of those eminent men whose names stand con
nected with institutions, or with modes of belief,
which are still extant. It is the fate of such men
to wait long for bare justice on earth ; — they live
on, from age to age, in the systems they have
originated, and are doomed to stand anew at
the bar of each succeeding generation, until their
influence and their authority shall have become
extinct.

Nevertheless, although influences of this sort
must live while parties live, yet are they continu
ally losing their hold of the educated classes ; nor

LOYOLA.

PART I.
PERSONAL HISTORY

CHAPTER I.

LOYOLA, AND THE RELATIVE POSITION OF HIS SYSTEM.

THE lapse of even so long a period as three cen
turies has not in every instance been enough to
place a great name beyond the reach of political or
religious prejudices ; nor indeed can any such ob
livion of undue aversions, or relinquishment of par-
'tialities equally undue, be well looked for in the
case of those eminent men whose names stand con
nected with institutions, or with modes of belief,
which are still extant. It is the fate of such men
to wait long for bare justice on earth ; — they live
on, from age to age, in the systems they have
originated, and are doomed to stand anew at
the bar of each succeeding generation, until their
influence and their authority shall have become
extinct.

Nevertheless, although influences of this sort
must live while parties live, yet are they continu
ally losing their hold of the educated classes ; nor

8 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

is it difficult now to find those who have attained
equanimity enough to enable them freely to award
his due to a distinguished man of past times, irre
spectively of any opinion that may be entertained
as to the quality of the system, the institution, or
the doctrines, to which he may have given perpetu
ity. Yet even such persons, exempt as they may
be from vulgar prejudices, may very probably have
come under an influence of a more subtile kind,
against which the more caution is needed, because
it neither stirs the passions, nor excites the imagi
nation ; and on the contrary, soothes and flatters a
philosophic temper. The modern tendency to the
orize, and to pursue gratuitous generalizations on
the field of history, may beguile us far from the
path of simple truth, in forming our opinion of dis
tinguished men, as does even the most acrid bigotry,
01 the most overweening idolatry. Doubtless the
moral universe, not less than the material, obeys
the impulse of general laws ; but who shall profess
himself to be master of them, even in their rudi
ments, much less in that infinitely varied interac
tion of these laws which makes up the course of
human affairs? Of these occult principles we
catch a glimpse, once and again, and what is
called the Philosophy of History availing itself of
such sudden flashes, constructs, by their aid a
fragmentary science—not utterly vague indeed
nor quite useless ; but not to be had recourse to or
' be relied upon, without the utmost caution
We here occupy ground where no experiment
can ever be repeated ; and where no two events, or
Curses of action, although apparently identical or

HIS SYSTEM. 9

analogous, can be brought into comparison with
any confidence that the very same causes, and no
others, have been in operation, in both cases. The
Philosophy of History may indeed be applied with
some certainty to great breadths, and to extensive
surfaces ; but scarcely at all, or not without ex
treme risk, can it be brought to bear upon single
events, or individual characters.

Abroad, and in Germany, especially, the practice
of theorizing upon events and persons has become
a fashion — a fashion fruitful of absurdities, and
while it perverts the simplicity of history, by a show
of ingenuity and novelty, it has rendered plain
realities distasteful ; and, in some momentous in
stances, has broken up the very ground of historic
certainty.

If any such pseudo-scientific method were adopted
and applied to the instances of Martin Luther and
of Ignatius Loyola, it might be easy to shed upon
our theme a glare of philosophic splendor. Thus
this pair of worthies might be held up to view as
binary stars, revolving round a common centre, and
exhibiting the counteractive forces, moral and re
ligious, of the sixteenth century ! Each, it might
be said, and each, as related to the other, was the
necessary consequence of the conflicting ferments
of that stirring age. Each of these great men
came forth, we might be told, when he came, and
each was what he was, and each did what he did,
in obedience to certain occult forces which, from
the depth of ages, had been working themselves up
to the surface of European civilization ! The one
was " an Idea" proper to Germany ; the other " an
1*

10 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Idea" proper to Spain ; and the two were simulta
neously evolved by a silent energy of the moral sys
tem, then struggling into light, and asking to be
defined, and to be uttered aloud, and to be defended,
and to be consigned to future ages ! Luther, ac
cording to some such theory, was the spokesman
of the Teutonic idea of Christianity ; Loyola, of the
Spanish ; and thus we should have before us the
philosophy of the religious movements of the six
teenth century ; that is to say, of the Reformation
throughout the northern, and of the Catholic reac
tion throughout the southern nations of Europe !

But if, in dealing with secular history, the theo
rizing tendency ought to be very cautiously in
dulged, how much more occasion is there for hesi
tation when the persons and events of religious
history are to be disposed of ! For, on this ground,
the causes we have to do with are more occult, and
are less easily denned, and they are more easily
misunderstood. There is, indeed, a philosophy of
religious history; but who, among mortals, shall
say that he has fathomed its depths ? From the
dim recesses of a human bosom — and this bosom
put in movement by the falling of a leaf, or by in
fluences unseen and inscrutable — may spring the
germs of a new era for millions of the human fam
ily ! Could then such an order of events have
been predicted? or, after it has taken place, are
we competent to assign these events to their
causes ?

Too often have portions of history, or single bi
ographies, been composed in the spirit, or after the
fashion of an epic. Unity of intention has been

HIS SYSTE-M. 11

looked for where it was not to be found ; and every
trivial incident has been shown to have had its
meaning in conformity with the theory which
governs the whole. Such histories or biographies
might gain much praise if given to the world as
pieces of art.

A special exception, however, must be taken
against this philosophic method, if it were attempted
to apply it to the case of Ignatius Loyola ; — and
perhaps another instance equallyvj^markable in
this respect does not present itself on trie page of
history. We have to do, in this case, with one
Ignatius Loyola ; but with two types of mind —
with two historic personages ; and, therefore, any
theory which may seem applicable to the one, must
be laid aside, and give place to a wholly different
hypothesis, when we direct our attention to the
other. The Loyola of the biographers, and the
St. Ignatius of the Society, stand contrasted in a
manner that seems to set at defiance any attempt
at generalization.

The Loyola of the biographers is indeed a very
intelligible person, differing in no very marked man
ner from scores of saints of whom the Church of
Rome is used to make her boast. Seen in this light,
he may well enough be regarded as the child and
creature of his times, and of his country, and of his
church : — all, so far — appears to be congruous, and
to be of ordinary quality, and therefore it is expli
cable upon known and obvious principles. But a
moment comes when the well-defined contour and
vivid colors of this cognizable figure begin to dis
solve, and to give place to a mysterious outline, or

12 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

rather monocrome, and which we are told to look
upon as the image of the Founder of the Society
of Jesus !

As to Luther, his personal character is all of a
piece, whether we take up his private history, or his
public conduct, as leader of the great movement of
his times. The regenerator of Northern Europe is
one man, whether he be seen confronting princes
and diets, or recreating his spirit at home. It is
otherwise with Loyola, who, although not to be ac
cused of acting a part, either as a " saint" or as a
chief, nevertheless, when he shifts himself from the
one character to the other, seems almost to have
laid aside his identity. What are the facts sum
marily stated ? — A Spanish gentleman, of bold bear
ing, and who courts every chivalrous distinction,
and breathes at once a nice honor, and a gallantry
less nice, is grievously wounded and thrown upon
his bed, where he endures weeks of anguish, and
months of languor. Spoiled for war and pleasure by
the hurt he has received, and fired, in a moment, by
a new ambition, he breaks from his home, and sets
forward as a Christian fakir, to amaze the world by
feats of wild humility. He undergoes mental par
oxysms, he sees visions, and exists thenceforward
in a condition of intense emotion, resembling, in
turns, the ecstacies of the upper, and the agonies
of the nether world. He dedicates himself, body
and soul, to the service of the blessed Virgin— the
queen of angels : — he sets out on a preaching pil
grimage to convert the Mahometan world, and he
contemns all prudence and common sense in apply
ing himself to an enterprise so immensely dispropor-

HIS SYSTEM. 13

tioned to his abilities. In the course of a year or
two he has merited canonization — if frenzied pietism
can ever merit it.

But now this same devotee — this unmanageable
enthusiast as he seems, and whose cheeks are fur
rowed with perpetual streams of penitence and rap
ture — suddenly conceives and quickly digests (at a
very early period after his conversion) and puts for
ward, and brings into operation, a scheme of life
and a polity of which nothing more need be said
/than that it has proved itself to be the most firmly
. compacted, and the most efficient, of any which the
^ world has seen. A scheme so bold, as to the means
of which it avails itself, and so refined in its modes
of dealing with human nature, and so elaborate in
its frame-work, and so far-reaching in its views and
purposes, could not have sprung from any but a
mind of extraordinary compass ; — a mind self-pos
sessed and tranquil, delicate in its perceptions, sure
in its intuitions, and capable of a wide comprehen
sion of various objects. The framer of this spiritual
polity, if he was not moved by, must have mastered,
a boundless ambition, and must have known how
to beseem himself as a lamb, while planning nothing
less than the subjugation of the world. The per
sonal history of Don Iriigo Lopez de Recalde is in
itself perfectly intelligible, and it has many counter
parts : and so, although it has scarcely a counter
part, is the history of the Pounder of Jesuitism, if
considered by itself ; but how shall we weld the
two together, as the history of one person — the
Ignatius Loyola ?

In order to remove, or in some degree to lessen,

14 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the difficulty that here presents itself, two supposi
tions have been advanced ;— the one is this :— That
Loyola's contemporary biographers have materially
falsified the portrait of their master, attributing to
him those virtues and that phase of piety which
they thought becoming to him when he was to be
held forth as the founder of a religious order ; at
the same time throwing into the shade those true
and prominent features of his intellectual character,
which, if they had been brought into notice, might
have bred suspicion as to his heavenly-mindedness,
and the simplicity of his intentions. The other of
these explanatory suppositions is this : — That Lo
yola, being truly represented by his biographers, and
having been indeed an ecstatic devotee, was, in fact,
thrust forward in front of the Jesuit Institute, by its
real authors, as a means of covering their actual
intentions with a disguise of empassioned and se
raphic piety.

Either of these suppositions might seem probable ;
but neither of them will bear a strict examination ;
for, in the first place, a comparison of the two or
three contemporaneous memoirs of Loyola's person
al history, while they exhibit indications of their
having been derived from independent sources,
present too many marks of genuineness and of veri
similitude to allow of their being rejected as fabri
cations. The exaggerations that attach to them
may easily be set off; and as to that intermixture
of the supernatural which they contain, those who
are familiar with the legends of the " canonized,"
will have learned how to disengage a true story
from this sort of decoration. The " Life of St

HIS SYSTEM. 15

Ignatius" we must then receive as substantially
true, although it may be circumstantially spurious.
As to the second supposition, even if it might be
partially admitted as probable, it cannot so be enter
tained as would serve to remove the difficulty in
question. It is certain that two veins of thought
are discernible in the original documents of the
Jesuit Institute, the one exhibiting far more of astute
ingenuity than does the other ; and hence it may
be inferred, that, while the simpler elements are at
tributable to the real Loyola, the authorship of the
» less simple should be assigned to his colleagues. It
is in fact known that one or two of those who con
stituted the " Society," in its infant period, were men
superior to himself in acquirements, and of a keener
intellectual type. Easily, therefore, may it be sup
posed that these more skilful hands took part in
laying the foundations, and in rearing the super
structure of the Jesuit polity. But the supposition
that Loyola was the mere screen of the machina
tions of his colleagues, and that he was innocent of
all but a cognizance of what they were doing, can
not be admitted, inasmuch as those portions of the
canonical writings* of the Society which, on the
best grounds, are attributed to his own hand, ex
hibit so much refinement, and so much skill, and so
much of mathematical steadiness in pursuing a de
sired conclusion, and so thorough an intuition of

* By the phrase, once and again employed in reference to the
Jesuit documents — "canonical writings," what is intended is —
those writings which, from the first, have been appealed to by Jes
uits as embodying the principles and the laws of the Society, and
which are still so appealed to.

jg IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

human nature, that they might be held to vouch
for his competency to have been the author of the

WThe fact then, little relieved of difficulty, presents
itself-that the ever-weeping, the ecstatic, the vis-
n seeing " St. Ignatius" was indeed the originator
of TesLety of Jesus, and therefore could have
been no enthusiast, no dreamer, no fanatic ;
who might have been matched with Macchiavell:
in subtile command of the springs of human action
—with Richelieu in the practice and art of govern
ing mankind— with Hobbes in daring paradoxical
consistency— with Mahomet in that fascination
which links together stronger minds for the achieve
ment of an arduous enterprise— with Hildebrand in
boundless and well-digested purpose; and, in a
word, with any among the few whose single ener
gies have turned the current of human affairs into
a new channel.

Loyola's elementary idea— that of an absolute
domination over the spirits of men, and of a centra
lization of all powers on earth, in the bosom of one
master of souls, was not of his invention ; for it
suggests itself always to a certain class of minds,
and is as old as human nature, and has, under
various phases, been coming to the surface, and
striving to give itself a real and visible existence,
from age to age. But no former endeavor of this
kind had been so consistently imagined, or has been
so successfully achieved. It is Loyola who has
shown the world what might be meant by the phrase
" Spiritual Polity :" it is he who has known how to
smelt soul-ore into one mass — a mass uniformly

HIS SYSTEM. 17

crystallized, arid shining on its surface, and mathe
matical in its figure, and thoroughly malleable
and ductile, and a good conductor of sounds : it
is he who has brought to perfection the process — •
cften attempted, of forging hundreds of individual
wills into so true a continuity of substance that
the volitions of a single mind should pass, like
galvanic currents, through the whole, and become
intelligible and effective at the remotest distances.

It is easy to fall into the error of supposing" that
Jesuitism, which at the first so signally came in to
the aid of the Romish Church in its time of need,
and which has made so many professions of devot-
edness to its service, is itself a mere appendage of
that Church ; or that it is a sort of emphatic Ro
manism ; or that it stands on level ground along
with the other religious orders, and that it is related
to the Papacy nearly as they are. Such an idea
of the Society as this is not merely contradicted by
every page of its history, but is incompatible with
its spirit and its rudiments. Jesuitism may outlast
Romanism ; or it may be wholly severed from it,
and yet may live and grow. Often as the Society
has been seen prostrate at the foot of the Sovereign
Pontiff, venting itself in vehement professions of
loyalty, it has, in fact, always hung loose upon ec
clesiastical Catholicism, and has shown itself to be
organically independent, living by its own sap, draw^n
from the soil by its own root and fibres. Jesuitism
has its own purposes to secure, and its own law of
self-preservation ; and should the day coine when
it could not save both itself and the Church, or
could save itself only by conspiring against her, its

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

past history would warrant the belief that the Pa
pacy might, at such a conjuncture, fall— set upon
by its professed friends, and with Caesar's last words
on its lips, while it looks to "the Society."

Not only, however, did Loyola take care to give
his Institute an organization that should render it
independent of that of the Church, so that it might
stand firm on its own basis ; but, with a sagacity
which must be admired, and a boldness of which
there is perhaps no parallel example, and with a
far-reaching perception of the occult relations of
things, equally rare, he set his new polity as clear
as possible of any entanglement with the emascu
late pietism of the regular and ascetic orders. The
Society of Jesus was made to stand comparatively
exempt from the trammels and disparagements that
are connected with excessive austerities, with de
basing superstitions, and with liturgical burdens.
It stood clear of the seclusive anchoretic temper
and practice ; it made no show of celestial simpli
city ; and, in a word, it threw aside, or would not
encumber itself with, any professions or practices
which might clog the movements of a machine
constructed for grasping, and crushing, and convert
ing to its own use, the most substantial things of
earth.

Loyola seems himself, at least as early as the sec
ond stage of his religious course, to have felt the
unprofitableness and vanity (if he did not clearly
discern the utter absurdity) of ascetic extravagances.
He would not, indeed, scandalize the Catholic
Church by denouncing them, or by laying them
altogether aside in his own practice ; but there are

HIS SYSTEM. 19

indications of his secret opinion that the self-tor
menting "philosophy," though it afforded a fit
amusement for the crazed dwellers in cells and
caves, could be no proper occupation for men busied
with the weighty interests of the real world. As
an institutor, Loyola first bowed to his reverend
predecessor — the Anchoret ; and then warily passed
him by. For himself and his followers, he had high
matters to transact — he had a world to vanquish,
and to govern.

The pallid spiritualism of the ascetics, with its
vapid anilities, its meagre results, its ghost-like
movings to and fro to no purpose, its mopishness,
its shyness, its egotism and its self-seeking, were
not qualities that could engage more than a com
plaisant obeisance from a mind filled with vast con
ceptions of a bold enterprise, and arduous labor.
Loyola paid his compliments to monkery, and to
its gew-gaws, in much the same manner as that in
which a monarch, full of state affairs, gives a half
hour of heartless courtesy and ceremony to a di
vorced consort.

Luther, in freeing himself from the ascetic spirit
ualism, and in loudly denouncing it as an utter
folly and a pernicious error, did so from an impulse
of evangelic health. To one so robust in soul,
what was this attenuated sanctity better than a
tissue of cobwebs ? Loyola, from no such impulses,
yet distasting the same thing, and with whom the
relinquishment of it was not a matter of conscience
or conviction, but of policy, could, at the dictate of
the same policy, continue to put it on as a garb,
and to take it up as a cloak, and to speak well of

2Q IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

it in measured terms, to his followers. Highly
characteristic is the style in which he does this.
He enjoins them, on all occasions— Laudare pluri-
mum religionum status ;— but the very injunction
betrays the consciousness that he and they occupied
independent positions, and that they were them
selves exterior to the system they were thus to
commend. "Always speak in laudatory terms
this or that usage or practice." So speaks an
authority that, in a perfunctory manner, is doing an.
expected homage to another authority. So speaks
one who is instructing his agents how to behave
themselves in a foreign land. This— laudare plu-
rimum, is a concession, made in relation to a mat
ter that is more highly thought of by the party to
whom it is rendered, than it is by him who renders
it ; and which is made for the sake of an ulterior
purpose.

Loyola, as the author of Jesuitism, was the me
chanician, not the enthusiast: he was not the
fanatic, who is seen driving the herd of men before
him with a fiery scourge ; but the master and leader
of spirits, who calmly marshals and drills the minds
he has enrolled. As he was not the promulgator
of any new dogma, he did not become fevered by
controversial heats. It was his function to give a
polity to the world : he could never have given it a
creed. His biographers assure us that he was ac
customed frequently to cast his eyes heaven-ward ;
yet he was neither the mystic nor the contempla-
tist : — his Institute is all earthward-bent. Spiritual
ism would have been to him idleness ; he could
occupy himself with nothing that had nc product,

HIS SYSTEM. 21

The depths which he fathomed were not those
abysses of the moral world whereinto sombre and
solitary meditation plunges mr but those near-at-hand
deeps of human nature which a few minds are
gifted to reach, as at a step, by intuition of the way.
As our Shakespeare knew human nature to paint it
truly in all its moods, so Loyola knew it to rule it
absolutely in all those moods.

There were special reasons, too, why Loyola
should take care not to connect his Institute too
intimately with the ascetic spiritualism. How far
he might be distinctly conscious of these reasons,
which are of a kind that were little regarded in that
age, if ever thought of, cannot be known : but it
may well be supposed that a mind so fraught as
Avas his with the intuitions of innate sagacity, might
discern, at least dimly, that a scheme of government
which was to diffuse itself over all countries, and to
embrace all races of men, must hold itself free from
those modes of piety which have sprung up and
flourished only in certain latitudes.

Spiritualism has appeared, spontaneously, only
within certain geographical limits : beyond those
limits it has been an importation— an exotic, kept
alive by artificial means. It is, or has always
seemed to be, dependent upon temperature : —
Fahrenheit must tell us where we may look for it.
As there may be marked on a globe a corn-growing
zone, and a vine-growing zone, so likewise is there
a zone or belt of abstracted meditative pietism.
Where is it that we may be sure of finding the most
luscious fruits, hanging in ripe clusters by the way
side, as common things ? It is where we shall also

22 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

be pointed, by the modern devotee, to the shrines of
a Benedict, a Basil, a Francis d'Assisi. Did Loyola
foresee that a refined, abstemious, contemplative
pietism would with difficulty be sustained in coun
tries where animal comfort can never be rel
quished with impunity ?

Besides, Jesuitism was intended to exist and t
establish itself amid the realities of common life ; and
it was to do this in a manner wholly unlike anything
that had been thought of or attempted by the earlier
monastic orders, whether preaching or mendicant.
Loyola well understood that this new intention in
volved the necessity of a new principle, and his skill
is shown in sliding his Institute from off the mo
nastic platform, insensibly, while he lodged it firmly
upon broader and more solid ground. The monas
tic and ascetic spiritualism withdraws its sincere
votaries from the company of other men, not merely,
or chiefly, because the " angelic virtue" feels itself
in jeopardy while commingling with the laxity, the
frivolity, and the corruption of the open world ; but
because it is itself conscious of a want of substance
and reality ; and this consciousness becomes pain
ful whenever solid realities surround it on every
side. Spiritualism is factitious ;— it is not hypocrisy,
but it is spuriousness ; and nothing can be more
difficult, and especially so to those who are sincere,
than to sustain an artificial state while encompassed
by what is natural and spontaneous. The balloon
collapses, in spite of every effort to keep it inflated,
when it is so pressed upon ; the spiritualist, sensi
tive and apprehensive of moral annihilation, hastens
back to his sodality, where he may again freely

HIS SYSTEM. 23

breathe in the company of those whose substance is
as aerial as his own.

Although therefore Loyola must be numbered
among the founders of religious orders, and although
the Society of Jesus is such, as to its forms, its
vows, and its professions, we should go widely
astray if we were to attach to that phrase ideas
analogous to those that are called up when we hear
of Benedictines, Augustinians, Franciscans, Domin
icans ; for these were religious orders, in an entire
sense ; they were so in their original purport, in
their framework and usages, and in their bearing
upon the open world. The final purpose of these
societies was accomplished when piety, according to
the ancient and mediaeval notion of Christianity,
was promoted within their own circles, and was ex
tended by their means around them. But Jesuitism
would be wholly inexplicable if it were demanded
of us that we should regard it as mainly a religious
institute, or as a scheme intended for cherishing
Christian virtues and graces.

It has seemed necessary thus to premise, first,
that the personal history of Loyola does not offer to
our view (unless it be once and again indistinctly,
and as by a glimpse) the man we are in search of
—the tranquilly profound inventor of the Jesuit In
stitute : next, that this Institute, although it has
been spoken of as a sort of condensed Romanism,
and although in fact it has done much to conserve
the Romish Church, and to extend its influence, has
an independent existence — is slenderly attached to
it— and, as it has already once and again been de
tached from the Church, or ejected by it, so probably

24 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

will it at length detach itself, and will struggle for
a separate existence. Lastly, the caution has been
given not to confound this Society with those an
cient institutes which it resembles only in exterior
style, in professions, and in forms.

The personal history of Don Iriigo Lopez de Re-
calde, of the house of Loyola, may be accepted at
the hands of the two or three contemporary writers*
from whose pages it is derived, with some degree of
confidence as to its authenticity, if not with an ab
solute assurance of its genuineness and simplicity.
This biography is in itself as credible as are most
of the narratives that make up the folios of the
Acta Sanctorum : nay, it is more credible — or rather
it is less mingled with what must be rejected — than
are very many of those prolix memoirs. If Saint
Ignatius had been signalized in no other way than
as having shed an edifying splendor upon the thirty-
first day of July, the story of his conversion, the
description of his manners, and the account given
of his labors as a popular teacher, might be perused
with as much benefit, and with as little hesitation,
as in the instance of the choicest worthies of the
calendar.

Although it be true that perplexity attends the
endeavor thoroughly to reconcile the Loyola of the
contemporary writers with our idea of the founder
and General of the order of Jesuits, this difficulty,
even though it were susceptible of no satisfactory
solution, would not warrant the rejection of memoirs
which, apart from any such difficulty, must un
doubtedly be accepted as in the main authentic.

* See note at the end of the volume.

HIS SYSTEM. 25

Loyola's personal history naturally divides itself
into three eras ; the first, and the most ordinary,
being that of his youthful career, and which, if not
wholly destitute of characteristic traits, differs but
little from what may easily be imagined as proper
to Spain, and to the times and court of Ferdinand
and Isabella. The second period commences at the
moment when the tumult of earthly passions, lulled
by bodily sufferings, gave way to influences of an
other kind, and which were permanently superseded
by deeper commotions of the soul : thence we fol
low him through a course of sharp, but not alto
gether unusual spiritual conflicts, until the day, the
date of which is not ascertained, when these con
vulsions of his individual nature were in their turn
quelled or displaced by the opening before him of a
vast idea — that of subjugating all souls of the hu
man family, and which, when fully developed,
quickened within him extraordinary intellectual
faculties, and in the exercise of which a course pre
sented itself leading directly to a seat of power, such
as the most ambitious spirits might envy.

Inigo, high-born, slenderly educated, or, as it
seems, wholly untaught in letters, yet accomplished
in all graceful and chivalrous arts, wanted no ad
vantage that might secure to him, in ample meas
ure, the smiles and favors which are to be won and
enjoyed in courts, palaces, pavilions, and camps.
He is described by his contemporaries as of middle
stature, with an aspect full of grace and dignity ; a
complexion between the fair and swarthy ; an ample
and prominent forehead ; an eye sparkling, and full
of life ; the nose somewhat long and curved. He
2

26 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

limped slightly, but not awkwardly, in consequence
of the injury his leg had sustained in the hands of
the surgeons. It is affirmed that he would never
grant permission to painters or sculptors to exercise
their art upon him; and that the extant portraits
and medallions were all derived from a cast taken

after death.

If authenticity could be attributed to a medallion,
the execution of which might seem to vouch for its
genuineness, and which accords well with the de
scription given of their friend and master by his
followers, we may assume him to have been hand
some, after the Spanish type, and decisively of mil
itary mould and aspect. The air is that of the ec
clesiastic, induced upon a form and temperament
which was thoroughly that of the soldier. The con
tour, symmetrical and rotund, is expressive of a
hopeful, enterprising, and chivalrous, rather than of
a reflective turn. One would say that the outward
life is more to this man than the inward life. The
intense attitude is that of one whose own emotions
and impressions rule his animal system, leaving
him little under the control of persons or things
around him. He is self-prompted, self-possessed,
sure, determined, unhesitating, firm ; but not re
morseless, or inexorable. He is fertile in resources ;
nor ever desponds because he has no means of help
left him. He is nice in his perceptions, has a keen
relish for enjoyment ; and — must it not be said ? is
of a pleasure-loving constitution ? One would not
think him the ascetic, or the self-tormentor. He is
well fleshed, and sanguineous, and is accustomed —
so one might surmise — to adjust all differences be-

HIS SYSTEM.

27

tween flesh and spirit in a reasonable manner. If
imaginative, it is only within the narrowest limits :
his imagination lights up at a spark, but. as it has
little oil of its own, it does not burn with any rich,
copious, or continuous splendor. Yet assuredly
there is nothing malignant in this physiognomy : it
indicates no acerbity, no sullen pride, no retention
of anger. This man is too happy in himself to
harbor a resentment.

Thus far, then, the medallion consists with the
history of " Saint Ignatius ;" but it must be con
fessed that if any score of portraits, unnamed, were
spread on the table, and it were demanded that the
founder of the order of Jesuits should be singled
out from among them, several probably of that
number would be selected sooner than this. If, in
deed, this be the image of the author of that Insti
tute, how shrouded was that intelligence ;— how
many fathoms deep was that mind seated, which
conceived a scheme for ruling the world, and which
went far toward actually ruling it !

CHAPTER II.

.LOYOLA'S EARLY YEARS, AND CONVERSION.

GUIPUSCOA, the province shut in at the angle of
the Bay of Biscay by an offset of the Pyrenean
range, and by its continuation westward, small as
it is, boasted of several ancient families whose cas
tles decked the slopes of its mountain rampart.
Among these none was more distinguished, at the
close of the fifteenth century, than that of Bertram,
Lord of Ognez and Loyola. Ifiigo, the eighth son
and thirteenth child* of this count, and of his wife,
Mary Saez de Balde and Ricalde, was born in the
year 1491. The opening graces of his person, and
his aspiring temper, seemed to destine him to shine
in courts and camps. At an early age he was sent
as a page to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella,
where he acquired every accomplishment that was
most esteemed in such a place, although barely
furnished, if at all, with the rudiments of mental
culture.

In this court, however, and while putting little
restraint upon the passions of youth, it is affirmed,
nor should we doubt the allegation, that he stood
distinguished among his companions by his absti
nence from profane language, by his abhorrence of
•

" Tuvieron estos cavalleros cinco hijas, y ocho hijos." — RIBA~
PENEIRA. See note at the end of the volume.

EARLY LIFE. 29

it as indulged in by others, by a reverential behav
ior toward the ministers of religion, by a contempt
of sordid gains, and by his dislike of gambling.
These germs of a noble temper, and of moral sensi
tiveness, have never been wanting in the conforma
tion of men whose after life has entitled them, in
any true sense of the word, to be styled great, and
Loyola, undoubtedly, has a claim, on some grounds,
to this epithet. Although the grace of Heaven may
often make the wicked good, yet its province is not
to make the little great : those who are to be such
are born, not made.

Loyola, we are told, disdained to take the share
due to him of the spoils of a captured town — Naja-
ra, deeming it unbecoming in a Christian and a
man to defile his hands with another's goods, al
though taken in lawful war. Not less placable than
brave, he was never retentive of injuries : — an adroit
peacemaker, moreover, and so well skilled, by intui
tive discernment of human nature, and by preco
cious sagacity, in the art of arbitration, and so suc
cessful in his endeavors to bring fierce spirits to rea
son, that at an age to which offices of this kind are
very seldom assigned, the management of difficult
negotiations had, in several instances, been entrusted
to him by public persons. It seems to have been
his gift to feel his way unerringly through the in
tricacies of human nature, and to dive into every
bosom ; and whoever possesses this intuition, comes,
by consent of all, into the place of leader in his
circle ; for the discerning of spirits is the foundation
of power.

Loyola pursued the career of pleasure and worldly

30 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ambition without check until he had completed his
twenty-ninth year; when he was snatched from
that course by a hand unseen, and set forward upon
another path.

France and Spain were at this time again con
tending for the possession of the border provinces,
and Navarre, contrary to treaties, was still held by
Charles of Austria. To recover this ground, a large
force had been sent across the boundary by Francis,
with the intention of recovering Navarre for the
family of Jean d'Albret. By this force Pampeluna
was invested, in which a garrison, wanting in cour
age or in loyalty, or in both, meditated a surrender.
The gallant Inigo, although not in principal com
mand, was there present, and would fain have
headed the defence of the place ; but after venting
indignant reproaches to no effect upon his country
men, he retired — with one companion, to the cita
del, where he incited those who held it to maintain
their position to the last. A breach in the walls
was however soon effected by the French artillery ;
and while Loyola, with a few, stopped the way by
their personal prowess, he was struck by a ball on
the right leg, and by a splinter from the wall on the
left, and fell in the breach. On this the garrison at
once surrendered ; but the assailants, not insensible
• — for Frenchmen have not often shown themselves
so — to the claims of the brave, rendered every need
ful office of humanity to their gallant prisoner ; and
they did it in a manner befitting his rank. More
over, as it appeared that the injuries he had sus
tained were too serious to be speedily remedied, he
was sent off, with all care, to the paternal castle,

EARLY LIFE.

31

not far distant from Pampeluna. on the northern
side of the mountain ridge.

It was thus that Loyola, with far better fortune
than often attends the wounded and vanquished
soldier's lot, found himself at home, in the hands of
assiduous nurses, and with every aid at hand which
love and skill could furnish. But the cure of his
wounds was tardy ; for the fractured bone had been
hurriedly or badly set ; nor, such was the opinion
of the surgeons, could a perfect cure be hoped for
unless violence, frightful to think of. were anew ap
plied to the limb. This torture, however, the patient
endured with the calm fortitude of a soul strong in
will. Nevertheless the shock, which was rendered
so much the more prejudicial to the animal frame
by the stern control which the mind had, at the
moment, exercised over the body, seemed to threaten
his life. Mortal symptoms had come on. It was
the eve of SS. Peter and Paul when the gallant sol
dier's sorrowing friends called in the ministers of
religion to perform their last offices in preparation
for death.

That which follows involves no miracle ; nor
would it demand any special notice, except as an
instance which may be noted as characteristic in
the personal history of a man like Loyola. It is. in
fact, one of several of the same class, occurring at
intervals throughout his course, and remarkable
only when regarded in connection with what might
be termed the anti-supernaturalism of the Jesuit In
stitute, and which is its distinction, as compared
with the style of the Romish Church generally, or
with that of the other religious orders. A scornful

-Si

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

exhibition of such incidents is not the mode of treat
ment proper to them ; for contempt solves no prob
lem in human nature, nor can silence on such
occasions be appropriate ; for not a particle of evi
dence, tending to clear up the perplexity that at
taches to Loyola's personal history, ought to be lost
sight of. Even if a " saint," in the legendary sense
of the phrase, he was more than a " saint" in that
sense : — he was better than a " saint," and he lived
to see the unprofitableness, if not to denounce the
hollowness, of much which his Church has been
used to commend. Worthy of notice is the fact
that, breathing as he did the atmosphere of a mira
cle-loving community, and himself — if these inci
dents are genuine — far from constitutionally insen
sible to excitements of this order, yet had recourse
so sparingly to any such means of ruling the minds
of men. He felt that while relying upon more ra
tional modes of government, he could well dispense
with the precarious aids of superstition. Such was
his knowledge of human nature, and such the plas
tic power of his hand, that, in moulding the thou
sand hearts which his Institute was to blend into
one, he felt himself exempt from the poor necessity
of taking up the tools of the magician.

But the patient lies at the point of death ;— the
physician declares him to have passed beyond the
reach of human skill, unless the disorder should
take a favorable turn that very night ;— the priest
too was withdrawn from the chamber. Ignatius,
we are told, had always cherished a specially de
vout regard to the Prince of the Apostles, in whose
honor he had, during his years of gayety, composed

EARLY LIFE. 33

hymns. In this night, and before midnight, and
while life was ebbing fast, this very Apostle— even
St. Peter himself— seemed to stand before him* at
the foot of the couch — or so he dreamed, and admin
istered, as from above, that aid which earthly skill
could not afford. The current turned — a life-pulse
beat through every limb — and the soul, empowered
so to do by Heaven's own mandate — took posses
sion anew of its quarters.

A fresh illustration, however, was yet to be
afforded of Loyola's energy of will, for as his re
covery advanced, it was found that the fractured —
the re-fractured bone, had so united as to present
an unsightly protrusion, just where the well-turned
limb should show a graceful outline. This deform
ity was, in his esteem, an intolerable ill ; for what
is life, with all its splendors, to one whose stocking
could never be made to fit without a rumple ? Al
though forewarned that the removal of this bony
excrescence could not be effected without inflicting
the most exquisite anguish, Loyola yielded himself
once again to the martyrdom of a terrible operation.
While his attendants fainted in witnessing the hor
rors of it, he, unbound, and without a groan, en
dured the surgeon's tools, indicating his anguish
only by the tight clench of his hands. That the
motive for undergoing this anguish was such as
is alleged, his biographer asserts — et quod me
audiente narravit — ut habiles atque elegantes ur-
barias ocreas gestare posset, secari os jussit.

* Maffei says, per quietem videre sibi visas est eundem apostolum.
.... Ribadeneira, — Apostolorum Princeps coelitus ad eum missus,
eique visus est.

2*

34 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Ignatius survived this new trial of the strength
of his constitution ; and although this last opera
tion had removed a deformity, the limb had sus
tained too much injury to allow him to indulge the
hope of ever again shining, as heretofore, in chiv
alrous array, or in the shows and revelries of a
court. His return to the world being thus cut off,
his after-formed resolution to turn his eye forever
from its glare, was no doubt rendered so much the
less difficult to adopt, and to adhere to.

Many weeks of languishing upon his couch had
however yet to be endured by Ignatius. To be
guile the hours, he called for some of those tales of
chivalry which he had been accustomed to peruse.
But none were at hand ; or at any rate he had ex
tracted the entertainment of such as the castle
could furnish. Two books of devotion, both in the
vernacular tongue — a Life of Christ, and some
ascetic memoirs, or legends of the desert — some
one of those collections — Sanctorum Flores — which
enrich Roman Catholic literature. In these com
positions everything is held to be true which is
found to subserve the purpose intended, that, name
ly, of lulling the reason and conscience, by a gentle
excitement of the fancy, and of the feelings.

These books, looked into at first with listless
vexation, soon set on fire the very soul of Ignatius.
As every fresh page was turned, sparks fell thick,
and thicker still, upon materials so combustible as
were those of this soldier's nature. That great
ness which the soul draws upon itself by the habit
ual contemplation of infinitude — the steady purpose
too, and the unconquerable will, and the unearthly

EARLY LIFE. 35

abstraction, and the lofty contempt of whatever the
world most admires and covets — all these rudiments
of spiritual heroism won the admiration of a spirit
like Loyola's sensitive and generous, arid now broken
off by a sudden violence from the incitements of
worldly passions, although in no degree sickened of
them.

Then these legends, with their lavish wonders,
while they kindle the imagination as poetry, com
mand the feelings too, as history — as something
real and true ; or they do so to those whose reason
no scepticism has ever troubled ; and where neither
a severe good sense, nor a correct taste imposes any
restraints, there is a peculiar charm derived from
that quaintness of style which so easily amalga
mates the elements of true sublimity with whatever
is frivolous and grotesque. In these tales the vast-
ness of religion lends a force to what is jejune or
ridiculous, and imparts an intensity to the recrea
tion which the mind thence receives.

Moreover, inasmuch as the anchoretic and mo
nastic life has been of oriental and Egyptian origin,
it draws peculiar means of fascination, from its cir
cumstances and scenery, when brought before the
imagination of the western races. All enchant
ments have travelled from east to west ; and entirely
stripped of its oriental decorations, it may well be
doubted if the ascetic institute would so easily have
triumphed as it did in Western Europe. The sul
try wilderness, bristled with horrid rock — the ardent
heavens — the sepulchral cell — the solitary palm
anear it, shooting heavenward its feathery crest,
and then the wilderness infested with monsters, and

$6 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the air peopled with spirits, good and evil, alto
gether show a picture which entrances the imagi
nation, at least of those who are ignorant of what
is the reality of the hermit's life in an Arabian wil
derness.

The " Life of Christ," which is said to have been
put into the hands of Loyola at this time, along
with the " Lives of the Saints," was probably one
of those meagre and decorated compilations from
the Evangelists which the Church of Rome has
thought it safe to afford to the laity.* Not only is
this supposition the only probable one, in such a
case, but it is even indicated by the paucity, or
rather the narrow range of those references to the
New Testament, which occur in the writings of the
Jesuit Founder. The reader of the "Spiritual
Exercises" is compelled to suppose that the author's
acquaintance with Holy Scripture must have been
extremely limited ; at least that it was so at the
time when these singular compositions passed from
his hand ; and we are confidently told that this was
at the moment immediately following his conver
sion.

It appears, however, to have been the " Lives of

* The " Life of Christ" most in repute at this period was that of
Ludolphus of Saxony, a monk of the fourteenth century. It was
originally written in Latin, but has been translated into most of the
languages of the continent. There is, in the British Museum, a
Spanish black letter edition— a very literal version of the Latin
published at Alcala, in 1502-3, in 4 vols. 4to. This probably was'
the book put into the hands of Loyola, and indeed was so, if we
may trust the Italian biographer, Bartoli. If so, a conjecture here-
after to be advanced, relative to the sources of the " Spiritual Exer
cises," will receive some incidental confirmation.

EARLY LIFE. 37

the Saints," rather than the " Life of Christ" that
at first fired the ambition of Loyola's soul, although
afterwards the simple evangelic history seems to
have dislodged the legends from his mind. " Why
should not I," he exclaimed, " with the help of God,
emulate the holy Dominic, or the holy Francis ?"
These breathings of a new ambition were how
ever still mingled with sighs and groans, produced
by the struggle of earthly passions in his bosom.
The bright enticements which hitherto had en
gaged all his thoughts and desires, continued to
exert their unabated influence over him ; and his
inmost soul was racked by the alternate sway of
these opposite forces. It seemed as if his very
spirit must have been riven by the grasp, on either
hand, of mighty powers, " contrary the one to the
other."

But while thus agitated and distracted, Loyola
was acquiring a species of learning, which, as the
master and guide of other souls, was necessary to
qualify him for his office. He learned, or he learned
psychologically, if not scripturally, in the midst of
these conflicts, to discriminate between the true and
the false— the genuine and the spurious, among
those indistinct or disguised influences to which the
human spirit, in the present state, is subjected, and
it was thus that he became an experienced director
of consciences. The "Spiritual Exercises" give
proof of this practiced skill, and whatever opinions
we may entertain of the general quality and ten
dency of Jesuitism, it ought to be acknowledged
that the writings of its founder show him to have
passed through the stages of a moral revolution,

38 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

which is essentially the same under all systems,
professedly Christian. With Loyola, however, this
conversion seems never to have gone forward be
yond a mid- way position, and it left him therefore
at a distance from the home of evangelic peace.
He did not recognize, or he had never discerned,
in the Scriptures, those first truths which imparted
life and power to Luther's course, as the Reformer
of Christendom.

Among the musings, seemingly good, which
might entertain his solitary hours, he did not hes
itate to ascribe to an evil origin — to the suggestions
of an adversary, all such as were followed by rest
lessness, torpor, or the weariness of a soul ill-con
tent with itself; while he welcomed, as coming
from above, those meditations which were not
merely pleasant at the moment, but which, as they
passed away, left the mind in the calm hilarity of
health.

Thus far let that which is genuine be acknowl
edged as such. At the point where Loyola turns
off from the path of Scriptural spirituality, the com
plexion of the narrative becomes at once so unlike
that with which the reader of the New Testament
is familiar, that the risk of confounding the one
with the other is small.

Whatever may be thought of Loyola's spiritual
condition at the moment when he turned his back
upon the world, yet toward the world, and in rela
tion to its false notions, and its pernicious courses,
doubtless he had chosen a better part. If still there
were illusions intervening between himself and a
pure Christianity, the illusions subsisting between

EARLY LIFE. 39

him and the world were the world's illusions, not
his. His impressions of things eternal were just,
and they were of the deepest kind : his conscience
had been awakened, his sense of individual demerit
was keen and tormenting ; his self-upbraidings
were in the last degree severe. He approached
the throne of offended justice as a trembling cul
prit ; but there he undertook the desperate task of
expiating the guilt of past years by bodily torments,
such as the most renowned saints had themselves
practiced, and had applauded.

Among these modes, unavailing as he found them,
of assuaging the anguish of his soul, and of placa
ting the wrath of heaven, a pilgrimage to Jerusa
lem, to be performed barefoot, and with daily flagel
lations and fastings, was the one which most en
gaged his thoughts, and he waited only to have so
far recovered the use of his shattered limbs as to
render such an attempt not utterly impracticable.
Might not the trembling penitent in this manner
hope to merit, at length, some tokens of the divine
favor ? An error, we reckon it, to think that he
could, in any such mode, blot out the records of a
life of sin ; but an error, surely, less fatal than is
that of those who swell such records daily, without
fear ! But these deep workings of the now cmick-
ened spirit, and this anguish in the consciousness
of guilt, and these torturing practices of expiation,
must be regarded as unintelligible phenomena if
they do not, even by the very extravagance that
attends them, attest the supremacy of the moral
impulses of human nature. What account could
be given of any such agonies of the heart, if man

40 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

were not a member of a moral system ; or what
would mean this dismay — this dread of an here
after, while nature smiles around him, if he were
not indeed amenable to future justice ? No inter
pretation could be put upon a course of conduct such
as that of the ascetic and devotee, if man were not
hastening forward to the presence of the Almighty,
as his Judge and Saviour ?

While thus struggling with his own emotions,
and digesting his plans of expiation — at midnight,
and during a vigil — so he told his friends — the Vir
gin Mother, with the infant Jesus in her arms, efful
gent in celestial majesty, presented herself before
him, and, for some space of time, with incredible
benignity remained in his view ! How did this
vision give intensity to the desire which already
was intense, to achieve his pilgrimage to the Holy
City ! But a favor so signal produced more than a
transient effect upon his dispositions ; for it sickened
him forever of things terrestrial ; — it gave him an
abiding disrelish of every sensual enjoyment ; — it
deadened within his bosom all worldly ambition ; —
it set him free from the enthralment of every infe
rior passion. The splendor of that vision seemed
in a moment to efface whatever had belonged to his
former consciousness.

The memoirs of Loyola, composed partly in
Spanish, partly in Italian, by Gonsalvo, the mate
rials of which were furnished, it is said, by the saint
himself, in a conversation held with the writer, a
year only before his death, narrate this vision in
terms implying a full belief in its reality, and yet
with an intimation that Loyola himself observed a

EARLY LIFE. 41

modest hesitation in assuming it to have been, in
any proper sense, miraculous. This writer, in men
tioning1 the happy and permanent consequences of
the vision upon the holy father's disposition, says —
Ex quo existimari potest, rem illam divinitus con
tigisse, tametsi id ipse affirmare non audebat. All
he would do \vas to assert with confidence the facts
as above stated; but to trace them to their imme
diate cause, he would not venture. A later biog
rapher* omits the — non audebat.

And where Loyola himself allows us to accept a
narrative as true, yet with liberty to think of it as
involving a miracle or not, we may freely do so, and,
on his own showing, may stop short in the hypothe
sis of an illusion of the brain. But \vere the moral
and the physical consequences of this vision alto
gether such or so permanent as he alleged them to
be? On this question we have no certain means
of coming to a conclusion ; for while it wrould be
equally unphilosophical and uncandid to assume
that Loyola's religious impressions must have been
altogether factitious, because our theology teaches
us so to regard them, we cannot be warranted, on
the other hand, in implicitly accepting them as
genuine, on testimony such as that of his biogra
phers, even if we may believe them honest. During
the rest of his life, say they, as often as he cast his
eyes upward to the vault of heaven, which he fre
quently did, all mortal interests showed themselves
in their vile aspect, and he was seized with an in
credibly fervent longing to reach his home above.

* Ribadeneira.

42 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

" How vile does earth appear, while I look upon the
heavens !"

Meantime Loyola gained strength, both of body
and mind ; yet he still thought himself unequal to
the pilgrimage he contemplated ; and he sought to
divert his impatience to break away from all earthly
ties, by a literary employment, of which the ex
ploits of the saints were the subject, and in the ex
ecution of which he no doubt secured for himself
some personal improvement. The precise nature
of these amusements is thus described by one of the
biographers : In order to aid his memory, he fairly
transcribed, in a neat and handsome volume, the
most remarkable acts and sayings of Christ, of the
blessed Virgin, and of the other saints : the pas
sages relating to Christ were written in letters of
gold ; those to the blessed Virgin in purple ; and
the other saints in various colors.

These occupations, however, and the self-denying
practices to which he addicted himself, did not fail
to awaken the fears of his elder brother now (be
come lord of the patrimonial domain) for his welfare,
who, in all modes of affectionate remonstrance and of
stern rebuke, labored to bring him back to the paths
of worldly ambition and of pleasure. But from these
importunities he withdrew himself on pretext of vis
iting his friend the Duke of Najara at Navarret ;
and he left the paternal home attended by two ser
vants only. Having — the better to conceal his pur
pose — fulfilled the requirements of friendship in a
courteous manner, he dismissed his two attendants,
and, after expending a part of the money he had
taken with him for his journey, in pious offices, he

HIS CONVERSION. 43

set forth alone, upon a mule, to practise by the way,
and without witnesses, those cruel austerities with
which he had resolved to maltreat and vanquish the
body. Thus eluding- the intervention of his friends,
and using such subterfuges as pious ingenuity
might contrive, and the occasion demand, he deter
mined to divert a little from the road leading to
Barcelona (whence he intended to sail for the Holy
Land) for the purpose of paying his devotions at a
much frequented shrine of the blessed Virgin at
Montserrat, four leagues from Barcelona, and where
there was an establishment of Benedictine monks.
The church of the Benedictine monastery, situ
ated on Montserrat, is described by a writer of that
age as resplendent throughout with gold, and stored
like a royal palace, with the most costly articles —
the offerings of kings ; and its treasures and em
bellishments as vastly surpassing those of the cele
brated church of St. James at Compostella. Before
the allar of the Virgin seventy-five lamps, greater
and smaller, were burning night and day. The
mountain itself, by its height, its marvellous con
tour, and the picturesque beauty of the scenery
around it, might be regarded as one of the miracles
of nature. Although a mass of solid rock, the
mountain sides are beautified with a spontaneous
growth of odoriferous shrubs, and of trees rich in
foliage. The position of the monastery is so ele
vated that the clouds often shut out from it the
view of the lower world, and are outspread, as a
pavement, beneath it. In the rear, jagged rocks,
of great elevation, give to the mountain that ap
pearance which its name so well indicates. These

44 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

points — such they appear as seen from a distance —
offer, in fact, many level surfaces, upon which
chapels and oratories, connected with the monas
tery, have been erected, and which are occupied by
anchorets of the Benedictine order.

Loyola did not doubt that a visit to this mon
astery would avail him much in that conflict which
was still renewed, at times, within his bosom, be
tween earthly passions and heavenly purposes.

Severely had he chastised his flesh with the lash,
nightly, since leaving his home ; but now he thought
to obtain far more effective aids in the preservation
of an inviolate purity, by placing himself in a for
mal and solemn manner under the immediate
guardianship of the always-virgin Mother ; and the
more confidently did he seek this powerful aid
against the wiles of the inward enemy, encouraged
and incited as he had so lately been by her mani
fested good will toward himself. To " the most
blessed Virgin," therefore, he tendered an irrevoca
ble vow of chastity. That this consecration, and
this immolation of himself, the offering of a devoted
heart, was graciously accepted at his hand, he had
this evidence, inasmuch as from that moment, and
onward to the end of his course, Ignatius, " through
the intercession of the Virgin." lived wholly exempt
from the assaults of earthly desire ; and even from
every movement of the soul which might trouble
his peace.

But how dangerous and how difficult is the course
of those who attempt to tread the path of " Chris
tian philosophy" without the help of a spiritual
director and master, let all learn from what befell

HIS CONVERSION. 45

the great Ignatius himself about this time ! The
catholic zeal of Ferdinand had not yet succeeded
in sweeping the Spanish soil clean of Moorish abom
inations ; for even in his own provinces, and on
every side, might still be seen, not the vestiges
merely of Mahometan misbelief, but the persons
also of many who, as conforming Moriscoes, reeked
with that poison. Into the company of one such
" miscreant" the young convert happened to fall on
his road ; and when the customary trivialities had
given way to more serious discourse, the gravest of
questions touching the blessed Virgin came to be
discussed. The two travellers proceeded from the
language of courteous debate to that of vehement
controversy and objurgation ; the Moor admitting
a fragment only of the orthodox belief on this point,
Ignatius strenuously maintaing the entire faith of
the church. In vain were reasons urged, in vain
was the light of truth presented to the eyes of the
impious man, wTho at length, with fierce impatience,
dashing his spurs into the sides of his beast, left
his antagonist behind, in all the fervor of the
hottest resentment. The man was gone past hope
of conversion ! Loyola's impulse was to push for
ward, and plunge a dagger into the heart of one
who, with polluted lips, had dared to derogate from
the honor of the Queen of Angels ! How should
he decide between the promptings of the soldier-
blood which throbbed in his veins, and the gentler
motives of piety ? But did not these very motives
demand that he should inflict a summary ven
geance upon this servant of the devil? Ought he
to leave unpunished blasphemies such as these?

46 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

From this perplexity he relieved himself by appeal
ing to a guidance which he thought might more
safely be followed than his own judgment. The
Moor having passed forward beyond a spot where
two roads met, Loyola threw the reins on the neck
of his mule, resolving to abide by the choice which
his beast should make for him — between the pur
poses of vengeance, and the misgivings of a waver
ing zeal. Should the mule, of its own accord, take
the road — a broad road — on which the Saracen
had galloped forward, he would then feel himself
to be heaven-commissioned to follow him, and to
bury a dagger — pugio fidei — in his body ; but if
the other and the less open road were taken, then
he would content himself, short of vengeance.
The mule quietly trotted forward upon this rugged
but better path ; and the saint's biographers, who
are not less wise than was their master's mule,
congratulate the Society upon the occasion of his
escape from blood-guiltiness.

Ignatius, thus tranquillized in spirit by the happy
option of his beast, pressed forward toward Mont-
serrat, and, entering a village near it, he made
sundry purchases in preparation for his intended
pilgrimage. These consisted of a long hempen
cloak of the most rugged texture, a tunic, a rope
for a girdle, shoes of matted Spanish broom, a pil
grim's staff turned at the end, and a drinking bowl.
These articles he attached to the pommel of his
saddle, whence they hung, as r o very ornamental
appendage to his equipment.

Ignatius has now fairly turned his back upon
the world, and has set forward upon the arduous

HIS CONVERSION. 47

path which is said to lead direct from earth heaven
ward. He enters the church of the monastery, and
there devoutly salutes the present divinity. His
next business is to set about an ample confession
of the sins of his past life— a recital of which, from
his written memoranda, occupied the hours of three
entire days. Moreover, to the father who lent his
cars to tliis confession, he opened the hitherto con
cealed purposes of his soul, as to his future course,
in adopting- the practices of the most renowned of
the saints. He next surrendered the remaining
contents of his purse to the use of the poor be
stowed upon a ragged mendicant, under favor of
the night, the costly garb he had lately worn ; and
with eager haste took to himself the pilgrim gear
which he had just provided. His right foot being
still in a swollen state, he indulged with a shoe ;
the left was bare, and his head also.

Too many, as he knew, were ready to be " phi
losophers'' so far as to the squalid garb, and no
further ; — too many found it easier to change a
cloak than to transmute the soul. Ignatius, there
fore, dreading for himself any such pretences, gave
all diligence to the care of his spirit, so that the
habiliments of poverty and abnegation should truly
symbolize the condition of the inner man.

Moreover, as it was the usage with those who
were about to enter any order of knighthood to
pass one entire night, armed, in a church, he re
solved, in his own case, to adopt this practice on
the occasion of his formally dedicating himself to
the Christian warfare. Thus minded, and having
suspended his sword and dagger m the church, he

48 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

spent the whole night in front of the altar of the
most holy Virgin — now standing — now on his
knees, with all humility imploring pardon for his
past offences— devoting himself to the divine ser
vice, and not ceasing especially, with earnest sup
plication, to propitiate " the blessed mother of God."

It was thus, in the year 1522, the eve of the
Annunciation, that Ignatius consecrated himself to
the Christian warfare ; and the coincidence of time
has not escaped the notice of his biographers, that
nearly at the same moment when this holy man
was devoting body and soul, under the auspices of
the Virgin, to the service of God and of mankind,
that " execrable heretic Luther," summoned to the
diet of Worms by the Emperor Charles V., enounced
the poison of his opinions, and with all insolence
proclaimed war against the apostolic chair, and im
pugned every catholic verity. Thus does it appear,
say they — and the allegation will be assented to on
the opposite side, if only a transposition of names
be permitted — thus does it appear that while Satan,
on the one side, was sending forth his chosen
champion, Christ also took care to furnish, and to
bring forward, his own servant for the defence of
the truth.

How cheaply may such assumptions be advanced,
and how easy a procedure is it for mortals to inter
pret, each in his own sense, Heaven's government
of the 'world ! A mode of argument, if argument
it might be called, which costs so little, and which
tells with as much effect on the one side as it does
on the other, might well be dispensed with on both
sides. More to the purpose might it be to advert,

HIS CONVERSION. 49

in this instance, to what is matter of fact, not of
hypothesis. Certain it is, then, that at the same
moment, two men, whose influence has been co
extensive and permanent, present themselves on
the stage of European affairs, and each of them
formally or virtually professes to be " sent of God"
for the restoration or the maintenance of the most
momentous truths. There is however a circum
stance attaching to the ministry of each which can
not be regarded as of no significance, bearing, as it
does, upon their several pretensions. It is this, that
while one of these professed " servants of Christ1'
declares his willingness to stand or fall by Christ's
own word, the other makes no such appeal to the
authority of Scripture ; but, instead of doing so, sets
forward on his course as the champion of Mary,
placing himself under her guardianship, and looking
to her for grace and help. Presenting themselves
therefore under these conditions, undoubtedly Lu
ther must be condemned if the rule to which he
himself appeals condemns him ; but Loyola's divine
legation falls if Mary be not in truth the arbitress
of human destinies, arid the source of grace to the
world.

Instead, however, of staking a great argument
upon contrasts of this sort, or attempting to hinge
a controversy upon an antithesis, a less precarious
method of reaching a sound conclusion, in an in
stance such as this, is — putting aside entirely all
mental reference to Loyola's illustrious contempo
rary — to pursue his own history ; the incidents and
the characteristics of which will not fail, taken al
together and calmly considered, to carry home to
3

50 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

sound minds a conviction, not merely as to his per*
sonal merits, but as to the quality and tendency of
his doctrine and polity.

The young and handsome Spanish gentleman,
clad in sumptuous attire, his copious locks sedu
lously arranged according to the fashion of the time,
and himself well mounted, had been seen ascending
the heights toward Montserrat ; yet, how incongru
ous are the appendages of his equipment, for there
are strung from the pommel of his saddle, as if he
had spoiled some luckless palmer on the road, the
coarse cloak, the shoes, the staff, the girdle, the
bowl of a pilgrim ! But, after a little while, tire
same graceful form, if indeed it could have been
recognized as the same, might be met upon the
road disguised beneath these uncouth pilgrim ac
coutrements ; — painfully limping — one foot naked,
the other swollen and clouted, his head bare, his
•hair matted and foul, his beard rough, his nails
grown like eagle's claws, his visage sunken and
squalid ! A pestilence was then raging at Barce
lona, and Loyola turned aside until it should abate,
to Manresa, a small town about nine miles from
Montserrat, and where, each day, he begged a
morsel of bread from door to door. Three times
every day he smartly (quam acerrime) chastised his
bare shoulders with the lash ; thrice every day he
attended prayers at Church, besides seven hours of
private devotion ; and every week he confessed, and
received the sacrament. In this discipline of suf
fering and humiliation he was becoming acquainted,
we are told, with the rudiments of the Christian
life.

HIS CONVERSION. 51

It was not long, however, before the real miseries
of the condition to which he had thus reduced him
self—the revolting humiliations to which he found
himself daily exposed, and the utter wretchedness
of beggary to those who have not been bred to the
profession, produced its natural effect upon a spirit
like that of Ignatius ; for, at the very same moment
when his constitutional enthusiasm had been chilled
down to the lowest temperature by bodily suffering,
and by the sense of shame, that keen perception,
and that correctness of the reasoning faculty, which
undoubtedly distinguished him, woke up, and he
began (at the instigation of the devil, we are told)
severely to question himself as to the course he had
adopted. " Wretched man ! what has impelled thee
to abandon home, kindred, noble friends, every
thing, and thus miserably bedight, to wander up
and down, petitioning for sustenance, and become
the companion of the very lowest of the people ?"
These thoughts, and more of the same sort, which
shook his soul, he however assigned to their true
source, and gained relief froni them by renewed as
siduity in his religious observances, and by sur
rendering himself so much the more to the humili
ations he had chosen. But, on this side again, the
tempter, according to his wonted wiles with the in
experienced, incited the novice to practise such ex
tremities of mortification as should, by their weak
ening influence, both upon body and mind, issue in
an abandonment altogether of the penitential and
ascetic course. Furthermore he was tried by a fre
quent, sudden, and unaccountable loss of all the
comfort and joy which heretofore he had never failed

52 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to derive from the exercises of devotion ; neithei
prayers nor psalms, nor any of the solemnities of
the church, brought him any solace. In his per
plexity he began to doubt if the elaborate three
days' confession of the sins of his life, which he had
lately effected, had indeed been complete. The
black catalogue of crimes was perhaps wanting in
some one particular, on behalf of which the wrath
of Heaven continued to follow him. The adversary
took terrible advantage against him, of this suspi
cion. Day and night he wept ; he went over, again
and again, the ground of his late confession ; and
as one who has dropped an invaluable jewel on his
way, turns back, and with trembling diligence scru
tinizes every inch of the ground he has trodden,
and renews the desperate search from day to day,
so did Ignatius retrace the path of his past life, even
up to the commencement of his moral conscious
ness, anxiously searching among the almost effaced
impressions of memory for— the lost crime! To
think too much of his sins was not Loyola's mis
take ; but it was his misfortune to know so little as
he knew of the only mode of release from the an
guish of an awakened conscience.

A black despair seized him in the midst of this
spiritual wretchedness; and the thought even of
self-destruction crossed his mind. At that time he
occupied a cell in a convent of the Dominicans,
from the window of which he had been impelled to
throw himself. He was however withheld from this
purpose by the divine mercy ; but he resolved, with
the hope of vanquishing or of placating the divine
justice, to abstain absolutely from all food, until he

HIS CONVERSION. 53

should win back the peace and joy that had thus
left him. Intermitting no sacred services and no
penances, he fasted a day — and two days — and
three — and four — nay, an entire week ; and he
would have persisted in his resolution had not the
priest, his confessor, and who had already sounded
the depths of his heart, interposed, and straitly
commanded him to abandon so presumptuous an
endeavor as that of contending1 with the Almighty :
in fact he threatened him with a denial of the com
munion, should he persist. Alarmed by a threat so
terrific, he took food therefore ; and, for a time, re
gained some tranquillity. Yet speedily he relapsed
into the same condition of inward distress, and was
tempted at once to renounce his ascetic purposes,
and to return to the world and to its enjoyments.
With this temptation also he grappled successfully;
and at length, and as if by a convulsive plunge, he
extricated himself at once, and forever, from these
dangerous entanglements.

This critical turn in Loyola's religious course de
serves a moment's attention ; and the more so be
cause it may fairly be regarded as indicative of that
energy of the intellectual faculty, and of that su
premacy of practical good sense, which are so clearly
manifested in his after-course. At this turn, and
for an instant, the founder of the Society seems to
come forward, although we presently afterwards
quite lose sight of him.

lie suddenly came to the conclusion that the
" mystery of confession," attended to in the manner
and for the purposes for which he had used it, so
far from having been beneficial to him, had been of

54 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ill effect. The divine mercy, interposing for his de
liverance, had brought him to see — and to see clearly
— that all this anguish of mind, and all this tor
menting excitement, and all these gloomy suspi
cions, were from " the adversary"— the evil spirit.
At once therefore, and without any further hesita
tion, he resolved to consign the entire delinquencies
of his past life to perpetual oblivion. In this way
not only did he himself obtain relief from his late
wretchedness, but he became qualified also to coun
sel and to help others who, in like manner, should
be tempted.

Loyola's confessor, as we have already said, had,
in a prudent use of his spiritual authority, forbidden
his persistence in the fast, by means of which he
had presumptuously thought to vanquish the Al
mighty ; and this father had also judiciously advised
him to relinquish the search for forgotten offences,
and to content himself with the ample confession
which he had already made. But it was his own
individual energy that at length prompted him to
take a course which his church would not have rec
ommended. It is thus that minds of high intensity
always take their own counsel, at the most critical
moments. And so again— if we follow Gonsalvo—
the briefest, but, as it appears, die most trustwor
thy, of the contemporary biographers— Loyola ex
hibited the vigor of his understanding in an instance
in which the mere visionary would otherwise have
decided. Even at this early stage of his course he
had commenced that care of souls which afterwards
employed so much of his time: many resorted to
him daily, seeking spiritual aid. This labor of

HIS CONVERSION.

55

charity, to which the later hours of the day were
devoted, would not fail to suggest many fresh sub
jects of meditation, and to occasion some excitement
of the animal spirits ; and the consequence was that
when, at length, he betook himself to his couch,
sleep was driven away by spiritual exaltations, and
by illuminations, and by consolations, the most pe
culiar. Finding himself thus deprived of a large
portion of the time — not too much for the welfare
of the body — which, on due consideration, he had
set apart for the purpose, and considering that the
whole of his time was in fact given to the service of
God, and to the edification of his neighbor, he began
to question whether these comforts and these illu
minations were indeed from the good Spirit, or were
not rather temptations ; and forthwith, and on the
ground of this doubt, he determined to reject and
exclude all such invasions of his allotted hours of
repose. Sleep he would, when sleep was the proper
business of the hour.

The saint having thus, by a convulsive effort, dis
engaged himself from the load of his past sins, and
freed himself also from many specious temptations,
made rapid advancements in virtue and spiritual
understanding. Nor was this all ; for about this
time, as we are assured, certain marvellous revela
tions were granted to him, which, if the representa
tions of some of his biographers are to be received,
must have been in the strictest sense supernatural.
It is said that, suddenly, and while reciting the
office of the Virgin, a light shone around him, in
the midst of the effulgence of which he saw a tri
angular figure, symbolizing the sacred mystery of

56 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the Trinity. This was not the miracle : but it is
added that, deeply moved by this vision, and in in
tervals of fits of sobbing, he spoke — continuously,
profoundly, and perspicuously, upon the most ardu
ous of all theological subjects ! Nor was this all ;
for although, at this time, he could barely profess
himself master of the arts of writing and reading,
he actually composed a treatise upon the Trinity,
occupying many pages (it is said twenty-four) —
unfortunately for sacred science, the manuscript has
perished — and which displayed an intelligence and
a spiritual discernment far surpassing the unas-
sistecl powers even of the most accomplished and
best furnished minds. In fact, the treatise thus
spontaneously produced by an uninstructed cav
alier is declared to have been an inspired work. It
should be said that Gonsalvo, who professes to have
derived his account from Loyola's own lips, makes
no mention of this treatise ; nor does he support the
other and more prolix narratives, as to what is said
to have followed.

It is affirmed that, at another time, a revelation
was made to him of the deepest secrets of nature ;
or, at least, of those abstruse parts of philosophy
with which ordinary minds become acquainted only
by means of painful and long-continued studies.
All science, sacred and secular, was thus imparted
to the founder of the Society of Jesus, on the easy
terms of seeing a vision ! Whatever might be the
advantage permanently derived by Loyola from
these miraculous communications, it is certain that
they did not, in his own opinion, supersede the ne
cessity of his undergoing a course of elementary and

HIS CONVERSION. 57

college education, and which to him was in an ex
treme degree irksome and difficult. It may seem
strange that the saint's over-eager eulogists should
not see that, while their master's true reputation is
much enhanced by the fact of his compelling him
self, ai the age of thirty, first to learn his grammar
among boys, and afterwards to pass through a
course of study at two universities, it is only dam
aged, or is brought altogether under suspicion, by
their inventing for his glory this narrative of won
ders. Loyola was indeed an extraordinary — if not
a great man ; and we must persist in thinking him
such, spite of his admirers.*

We reach now a point in Loyola's course, at
which again a glimpse of what we ought to find in
the history of such a man presents itself. Already
it has been mentioned that he early disengaged
himself from the cobweb entanglements of the as
cetic life. Austere practices he did indeed main
tain ; but a mere ascetic he could not be ; no such
style of piety could he adopt, as his end and aim ;
he felt that he had a vocation which could not be
followed in the cell or the wilderness, and that he
was to plough for himself a track right across the
open field of the world's affairs. He could compel

* In place of the more highly elaborated narratives of the con
temporary and succeeding Jesuit writers, Gonsalvo thus suc
cinctly mentions his master's supernatural initiation in natural
philosophy. " Alio tempore objectus est ejus menti|*magna cum
spiritus alacritate, modus, quomundum Deus condidit. Sibi autem
videre videbatur rem quamdam albam. ex qua nonnulli radii egre-
diebantur, et ex qua Deus lumen emittebat. Ipse tamen nequc hsec
satis explicare poterat, neque meminisse earum illustrationum, quas
turn in ejus animum Deus imprimebat." — Cap. iii.

58 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

himself to fast, after the most severe manner, as
often as he thought it good so to afflict himself;
and a Cossack, also, can sustain hunger as long ;
but both have work to do, which cannot be
done upon a diet of lettuces and water.

There was, however, one gift or grace to which
the highest importance has always been attached
by those who have practised and applauded the
" angelic life." This is what is termed " the spirit
of solitude," — a temper, not merely recoiling from
free intercourse with the world, and impelling its
possessor to hide himself from the converse of other
men, but throwing him always, with an intensity
of regard, upon its individual spiritual well-being.
Those most eminently endowed with the spirit of
solitude might take it as their motto, — " this one
thing I do, namely, care for my own soul." But
Loyola's soul was of larger compass, and it burned
with an expansive zeal ; and he could think of
himself only as the servant of others — as the guide
of souls — as the church's champion — as the apos
tle of the faith. In a word, he rejected this specious
selfishness— this " spirit of solitude ;" or he left its
satisfactions and its honors to others. To propa
gate the Christian doctrine in all lands — to win
souls, and to govern them, was his calling, and he
pursued it with undiverted energy ; and in the pur
suit of it he encountered, and surmounted, obsta
cles the most formidable. It is now, therefore, that
we meet for a moment the man we are in search
of, although we are so soon again to lose sight of
him ; or he is snatched from our view by his biogra
phers.

HIS CONVERSION. 59

Notwithstanding the care he had taken to conceal
the austerities he practised, and to disguise what
related to his origin and early- history, it had at
length got abroad that a " saint" was about, and
moreover that this eminent devotee was member of
a noble house, and had played a part at the court.
Speedily, therefore, he became the object of curiosity
to persons of all classes, who crowded around him
on various pretexts ; some from frivolous motives ;
but more with a sincere wish to obtain for them
selves the benefit of his admonitions and advice in
spiritual matters.

To these, how low soever in their condition, or
degraded in their habits, he gave sedulous atten
tion — laboring if, by any means, he might join them
to the Lord — and nothing dismayed by the extreme
squalor of their persons, or their inveterate filth.
His first care — and let us note a circumstance so
characteristic, when compared with that relish of
filth which the most noted of the ancient ascetics
professed — the first care of Ignatius, we are told,
was to induce his dirty visitants to put away from
themselves a portion, at least, of these adjuncts of
misery — to wash, and to adjust their tatters in the
best manner they could.

This, done, he applied himself to the cure of the
inner man, and aware as he now was — for he had
learned it in his own experience— of the difficulty
of the task which had thus come upon him, he did
not fail earnestly to entreat the divine aid — that aid
to which he owed his own conversion, its progress,
and the happy issue, at last, of the storms and dark-

60 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ness, and multiform temptations, through which he
had passed.

It was then that, revolving within himself, as
well what he had learned directly from Heaven, as
what his experience had taught him, he was led to
digest, and to commit to paper, various fruitful
methods of meditation and of prayer, together with
certain excellent and wholesome precepts, which,
when duly compiled, made up that immortal book —
the " Spiritual Exercises !"

It will be convenient to defer, for a little, that
analysis of this corner-stone of the Jesuit Institute
which it is our purpose to attempt, and at present
to pursue the thread of Loyola's personal history.
If the fact affirmed by his biographers — namely, that
the book of the Spiritual Exercises was indeed com
posed by Aim, and at this time — that is to say, al
most at the moment after his own conversion had
been consummated — if this could be placed beyond
doubt> it must be regarded as presenting an extraor
dinary instance of sudden maturity of the intel
lect. A parallel instance can scarcely be cited of a
literary production so wholly unlike what might
have been looked for from the mind whence it came :
— it might be likened to one of those experiments
of the chemist who, by adding a few drops from his
phial, converts, in the twinkling of an eye, a spark
ling fluid into an opake substance. The hot-brained
soldier devotee, who is madman enough, not merely
to leave his home, but to deck himself in rags, and
to beg his bread superfluously from door to door —
this same devotee, whom we find at the river's side,
becoming, in a trance, a profound theologian, and

HIS CONVERSION. 61

an accomplished philosopher amid the blaze of a
vision ! — -this man, within the compass of a few
weeks, writes a book which whatever opinion we
may be inclined to form of it at a cursory glance,
has proved its adaptation to the human mind, for
effecting the purposes it intends, through the course
of three centuries ; and it has done so, on the
largest scale. This book, the work of one whom, as
we first catch a glimpse of him, we note as a half-
crazed fanatic, and to whom, without a scruple, we
should apply the milder epithet enthusiast, — con
tains scarcely any trace of enthusiasm, and none
of fanaticism ; nor does it bear, on its face, anything
of that patchwork style of rhapsody, inanity, and
audacity which one should confidently look for, in
such a case !

It is acknowledged that the " Spiritual Exercises"
underwent several careful revisions at later periods,
and before the time when the book was submitted
to the judgment of the Roman pontiff. To what
extent its very substance and quality were altered
in those revisions, cannot be ascertained. Moreover,
during the interval between the first composition
and the time when it was authoritatively given to
the world, it had been held by the author under
constant correction, and had received, piece by piece,
many additions. Meanwhile Loyola was himself
acquiring skill, as a practitioner, in the cure and
treatment of souls ; and for the purpose at once of
rendering service to as many as possible, and of en
larging his own knowledge of men and of human
nature, he not only received in his cell, with benig
nity, all who visited him, but occasionally accepted

62 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

invitations to dinner at the tables of the opulent,
where, forgetful of ascetic squeamishness, but not of
his high purpose, he took occasion, from the turn of
conversation, to requite those who had spread be
fore him a feast of things perishable, by opening
before them the banquet of things eternal. Many
there were whom, in this manner, he snatched, it
is said, from the way that is broad and easy, and
induced to set out upon that which is narrow and
difficult. '

The Loyola of Jesuitism now seems to be coming
forward ; at least we see one whose energy carried
him instinctively away from what was inane or
unproductive, and bore him forward toward what
ever was practical and useful ;— a man .whose rea
son was not only uppermost, but strong enough to
control an ardent temperament, to keep in check
very vehement instincts, and to take and to hold
the mastery over a will of giant force !

But those labors of charity with which he had
burdened himself were too great for his strength,
and especially as conjoined still with too much
austerity in his mode of life: at least his biogra
phers affirm that he did thus continue to afflict the
body. He fell ill of a fever, and was despaired of;
but recovered, and seems to have become sensible
that vigils and severities may be carried too far.
He relaxed therefore ;— he consented to wear shoes ;
he covered his head abroad, and took to himself, as
winter approached, a cloak of thicker fabric.

While lying upon his pallet, Ignatius had em
ployed himself in effecting an anxious scrutiny of
his conscience, where he discovered much cause of

HIS CONVERSION. 63

uneasiness, and encountered the wily adversary
anew; but from this trial he came forth at length,
strengthened in the wise and characteristic pur
pose to dismiss, on every occasion hereafter, all
profitless musings upon the good and evil that
might be contending for mastery within the home
of his own bosom, and to give himself, without
distraction, to those labors by which the welfare of
other souls and the glory of God might best be pro
moted.

CHAPTER III.

LOYOLA'S ATTEMPT TO CONVERT THE MAHOME
TAN WORLD, AND THE FAILURE OF THE EN
TERPRISE.

LOYOLA had bound himself by a solemn oath to
visit the Holy Land, couching within the simple
ardor of a pilgrim the higher purposes and the zeal
of an apostle. Towards his friends, who earnestly
labored to dissuade him from a journey then so
peculiarly perilous, and the more so on account of
his feeble health, he maintained an entire reserve
as to his more lofty intention, and professed only —
what was so far true — the passionate desire he felt
to pay his devotions on the sacred spots. The mo
tives of common prudence they fortified by appeal
ing to his sense of responsibility toward the many
souls that had now come under his care. They
did not understand that, to a mind such as his, the
" something beyond" must always outweigh what
ever attaches only to the present time, and to the
things nearest at hand. At the least, said they, let
him seek a companion on whose help and counsel
he might lean in time of need ! Many such there
were who would willingly attend him, and some of
these possessed that which he did not pretend to —
an acquaintance with the popular dialects of the
East, and who had at their command also the Latin

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 65

and Italian languages, of which he was wholly
ignorant.

But on this ground again Loyola's prudent friends
misunderstood the order of mind they had to do
with. His zeal was of a sort that would have lost
its intensity, or its inflation, if he had thrown him
self at all upon the guidance of reason, or had al
lowed himself to lean upon any support other than
that of a blind impulse. He must go, spite of all
risks, and go in destitution of all natural means.
He broke himself away, therefore, from the well-
meant importunities of his friends, and, in the face
of every suggestion of common sense, prepared him
self for his journey. And in what consisted this
preparation? — in a determination to dispense with
every aid of an earthly kind! "The Christian
virtues," said he. "are not merely faith and charity,
but hope also ;" but if he provided himself with a
purse, or if he took a companion, he should at once
impair the integrity of his faith, and renounce his
hope.

He had spent nearly a year at Manresa, em
ployed in carrying forward the work of his own
conversion, in guiding the souls of others on the
same course, and in composing, at least as to its
rudiments, the book of Spiritual Exercises. During
these months, as he himself reported to his friend
and disciple Gonsalvo, he had been favored with
many extraordinary revelations ; sometimes, to the
eye of the mind, had appeared the humanity of the
Lord, not indeed in the distinctness and proportion
of its members, but as an undefined resplendence.
Twenty times, or even forty, this might have hap-

66 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

pened to him at Manresa. In a similar manner
the blessed Virgin once and again revealed herself
to him ; and from these visions he obtained so clear
and thorough a perception and persuasion of the
great mysteries of the faith, that, even apart from
any testimony of Scripture thereto relating, he
could have suffered martyrdom in defence of them !
— a perilous confidence surely in visions, as super
seding the testimony of Scripture, and especially
when, according to his own account, he was fre
quently visited by counterfeit visions, hardly to be
discriminated from the genuine ! He assures us,
however, that he could always distinguish between
the true celestial splendor, and the glitter of a de
moniacal appearance, and that the latter he was
accustomed to drive away by means of certain
passes of his walking-stick !

It was in the spring of the year 1523 that Loyola,
to the unspeakable grief of all, left Manresa, on
his way to Barcelona, intending there to take ship
for Italy. In a saint story of the vulgar stamp we
take no notice of the folly (or worse) of the man
who, after flinging away from him a well-furnished
purse, and which was his own, absolutely goes
a-begging for what, the next hour, lie finds he cannot
dispense with— a morsel of bread ! This species
of absurdity runs through such memoirs of sanctity.
But how are we to deal with the same folly when
it meets us in the life of a man like Loyola ? Ab
surdity does not characterize his writings,— is it
then chargeable entire upon the writers of his life ?
We might think so as to some of these instances
but not as to all.

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 67

The master of a vessel shortly to sail for Italy,
agreed to give him his passage, but required that
he should bring on board a quantity of biscuit,
sufficient for his sustenance during the passage.
This " hard condition" he accepted, and proceeded
to beg from door to door the requisite store of pro
visions, and this he did although -his purse still
contained some gold pieces, which, just before sail
ing, he deposited on a settle near to where the
vessel was moored.

Ignatius landed at Gaeta, after a stormy passage
of five days, whence he proceeded on foot to Rome,
worn out with fatigue and hunger; for the terror
of the pestilence then raging had shut up the usual
sources of charity. He arrived on Palm Sunday,
and having visited with pious reverence the holy
places, he kissed the feet of Adrian VI.* At Rome
he found some Spanish gentlemen, to whom he
was known, and who repeated the remonstrances
of his friends at Barcelona, endeavoring, if possible,
to turn him from his purpose. '• The Turks," said
they, " had just taken Rhode's," news which spread
dismay through Italy, and which event could not
but render a voyage through those seas ten-fold
more perilous than usually it was ! Nothing would
avail. If it must be so, then let him go sufficiently
provided with money for the journey — at least with
enough to pay his passage from Venice to Pales
tine ; for even should he succeed in begging his
way from Rome to Venice, could he imagine that,
unknown and a stranger, he should be taken on

* Or of Clement VIII.

68 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

board a vessel gratuitously, and for so long a
voyage ?

At length he so far yielded as to accept some gold
pieces, with which burdened, much rather than fur
nished, he set out ; but he had not proceeded far
before, in revolving the whole matter carefully, he
heavily accused himself of having, by this compli
ance, violated the vow of his profession, and re
nounced his trust in God. At the instant he was
near to casting away indignantly the whole that
he had received ; but his better reflections told him
that this would be an act of ingratitude to God, as
well as wasteful ; and he resolved to bestow it, little
by little, upon any poor he might meet on his way.
How worthy of notice in the history of such a man
is this curious process of alms-giving, blended with
mendicancy ! One mile on this side a village, per
haps, Ignatius finds a tattered wretch, who can
scarcely believe his eyes in receiving from one hab
ited like himself, and emaciate with want, a gold
coin ! The donor rejects the overflowing gratitude
of his poor brother, then limps on — exhausted ;
enters the village, and there, and while other gold
pieces are still weighing heavy in his purse, he
humbly craves a morsel of bread from door to door '
Whether Ignatius Loyola actually perpetrated any
such folly cannot be certainly known, nor should, it
be supposed, did not the most authentic of his biog
raphers seem to imply it as a fact ; but even if it be
so, no judicious writer would now make a boast of
instances of infatuation such as these ? A dire pes
tilence, as we have said, ravaged Italy at that time ;
and guards, placed at the gates of all cities and

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 69

towns, sternly denied admittance to wayfaring folk,
like Ignatius, open as were such to the reasonable
suspicion of being the carriers of infection. He,
wasted, wan — his complexion squalid, his eyes
sunken, his attire foul — was driven away from the
door of inns, and compelled to lodge abroad ; and
was gazed at with dismay as he passed along the
highways. He knew not a word of the language
of the country through which he passed, and noth
ing of the roads. He was compelled, also, by his
lameness, to drop behind the company of travellers
to which he had joined himself.

Finding that the utmost caution was used at
Venice in excluding strangers coming from the
south, and who carried no bill of health, Ignatius,
who had none, turning aside, reached Padova, and
from that town got admittance readily into Venice.
There, however, no refuge was at his command ;
he would not introduce himself to the Spanish lega
tion, and, having learned so to rest, threw his wea
ried limbs for the night upon a vacant space in the
portico of St. Mark's ; and by day he begged his
bread.

It is said that a noble senator, near to whose pal
ace the holy man lay stretched on the cold pave
ment, was suddenly awakened by a voice from
Heaven, telling him that, while he lay enclosed
with sumptuous draperies, a servant of God, a pil
grim, lay abroad, not far from his dooj, poor, and
destitute of aid and solace. In alarm and horror
, this senator leapt from his couch — went forth, sought
for, and soon found Ignatius — brought him home
and entertained him with high respect. The next

70 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

day, however, he withdrew himself from these too
sumptuous hospitalities, and, having met with an
old friend from the Asturias, betook himself to quar
ters where he could be more at ease.

Gladly would his host, edified by his pious de
portment and his brief yet pertinent discourse, have
detained him as his guest ; but as this could not be,
he obtained for him the favor of a passage in a
vessel about to sail with official persons destined for
Cyprus. Many pilgrims liad come to Venice, in
tending thence to proceed to Palestine; but the
greater part relinquished their intention on hearing
of the capture of Rhodes by the Turks. Not so
Ignatius ; nor was he deterred from embarking,
even by a serious illness under which he labored at
the very moment when the ship was about to sail.
Those around him asked the physician if the holy
pilgrim might safely go on board. Yes, replied he,
if he there seeks a grave ! But it turned out other
wise, and a timely sickness did more for him than
the physician whose prognostics he disappointed,
and he presently regained his usual health.

Adventures not important marked his transit from
Italy to Joppa. During the course of it, and it ap
pears to have occupied two months, Loyola himself
reports that the Lord often appeared to him as here
tofore, in an indistinct mode. It was on the fourth
day of September, in the year 1523, that he set foot
within the Jloly City.

The region round about Jerusalem has of late
been set before English eyes so amply, and with so
much particularity of description, and with such
sumptuousness of illustration, that it has become

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 71

an easy effort of imagination to convey oneself
thither, and to fancy oneself to belong to the train
of pilgrims, halting in the valley beyond the Kuryet-
el-Enab, alighting from their beasts, each surren
dering himself, for some minutes, to a death-like
stillness of expectation, and then pressing forward,
as does the camel of the desert to a well at hand,
toward the brow whence first the eye may feast it
self upon the prospect of the Holy City ! Thus did
Loyola, and at a time when the many and real
perils of a pilgrimage served to add a deep intensity
to enthusiasm; thus did he kneel, and thus recol
lect himself, and rush onward, and thus gayly exult,
when at last that sombre length of wall, wanting
as it is in every recommendation but such as the
pilgrim's soul supplies, stretched itself along the op
posing height before him !

There can be no doubt that, on every holy, and
on many an unholy spot, Loyola drank brim-full
cups of that devout intoxication which is there of
fered to the lips of pilgrims. And yet, while revel
ling in these delights, he did not lose sight of h'is
higher purpose ; for he was not the man to forget,
or to be beguiled of, a great intention, by mere
gratifications, even of the purest kind. Those
around him might witness his raptures as a pilgrim,
but none knew or suspected that the will and reso
lution of an apostle were couched within that form
of devout ecstasy. With an unfeigned delight he
entertained those recollections of the past which
the " holy spots" so vividly recalled ; but then it was
the future — it was his own vocation — that mainly
employed his thoughts. What he mused upon as

72 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

he paced the narrow streets of Jerusalem— as one
of a train of mindless, purposeless pilgrims— was
the restoration, by his means, of the schismatic
Greek communion to the true church, and the con
version of the millions of Mahomet's followers.

Having, during the few days allotted, as its stint,
to each pilgrim group, satiated his devotional appe
tite, Loyola, while his companions were preparing
themselves to depart, and were filling their pouches
with the dear-bought memorials of their journey—
the wares of the Holy City, was devising means for
separating himself from the band in the muster-
roll of which his name was inscribed, and thus for
protracting indefinitely his stay in Palestine. This
purpose, however, was frustrated ; — shall we ask if
it has been well for the world that, at this point of
his course, his zeal met a rebuff, and that he was
compelled to retrace his steps westward ?

In the hope of effecting his purpose, he first ad
dressed himself to the superior of the Franciscan
convent, mentioning only a half of his purpose, and
the unimportant half, namely, to abide in the Holy
City. The good man seemed to listen with favor
to his petition ; but said the point must be referred
to the Provincial, who was then at Bethlehem. This
high functionary speedily returned, and we may
easily believe that, in his post, he had had to do often
enough with bold and.sturdy devotees — men whose
aspect and tone declared that they were used to yield
themselves to their personal impulses uncontrolled.
The prudent and experienced Provincial discerned,
probably, in Loyola's style and manner, quite
enough of the indications of resolute self-will, to de-

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 73

termine him not to permit his continued sojourn at
Jerusalem, or anywhere else within his jurisdiction.
He, however, on the contrary, had come before the
Provincial in the confident expectation of a decision
favorable to his wishes. But it was no such thino- :

O

the dignitary had already made up his mind, as to
the pilgrim's petition ; and although he received and
conversed with him courteously, his refusal was per
emptory. Not an hour's delay beyond the time when
the cavalcade was to pass out of the Jaffa gate,
could be granted him ! " I have heard," said he,
" of your pious desire to remain in the Holy Land,
and I have carefully considered the case. In truth,
very many, like yourself, have desired the same
thing, and the experiment has often been tried. Of
those who have staid, many have perished among
the infidels ; and more than a few, having been
made captives, have thrown upon the Franciscans
the burdensome obligation of redeeming them ; no
trifling affair this ! therefore my decision is, that
you prepare yourself to depart with the other pil
grims to-morrow."

But Loyola would listen to no denial ; his reso
lution was fixed not less absolutely than that of the
Provincial, nor could any considerations of personal
safety divert him from it ; — nothing, in short, but a
clear case of obligation to submit to a competent
authority. " Oh. well," said the Provincial, "I have
authority from the apostolic see to send away, or to
retain, whomsoever I think fit, and at my own
pleasure. Nay, this is not all, for I have power to
pronounce excommunication upon any one who
may refuse obedience ; and so in this case have I
4

74 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

decided, namely, that it will not be well for you to
remain in the Holy Land !" The Provincial was
proceeding to exhibit the pontificial letters-patent,
granting him the power of excommunication. Lo
yola said it was needless so to do ; and, seeing the
case stood as it did, he should yield.

Thus minded, he returned to his place ; but at
this very moment, and when no time was to be lost,
unless he would incur the utmost risk, a sudden de
sire seized him to revisit the Mount of Olives be
fore he departed — seeing that the will of God did
not permit him to stay — and once again to inspect
the vestiges of our Lord's feet upon the rock, whence
he ascended to heaven. Off he set, giving notice
of his intention to no one, and taking with him no
guide— for a pilgrim to do which is in the last de
gree dangerous, the Turks being wont to despatch,
without remorse, any solitary stragglers who may
fall in their way. The door-keepers of the Church
of the Ascension he bribed to let him pass, by the
gift of his pen-knife. Having there paid his devo
tions with much comfort, a new wish urged him to
go on to Bethphage. While there it occurred to him
that he had not, with sufficient care, noted the
position of the foot-marks on the rock, so as to be
able to determine toward which quarter of the
heavens our Lord turned his face in ascending. To
gain admittance a second time cost him his scis
sors ?

Meanwhile there was a hue and cry to find the
stray pilgrim, who had not answered to his name
when the muster-roll was read, at the moment of
setting out. An officer of the convent met him on

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. ' 75

his descent from the Mount of Olives, and, with
threats and violence, dragged him forward ; he, not
resisting, went on, and, as he went, was solaced by
that divine apparition which had so often before
sustained his faith in moments of fear and suf
fering.

Thus rebuffed, Loyola turned his back upon the
Holy Land — upon the schismatic Greek communion
— not by him to be reconciled to the true church,
and upon several hundred millions of the followers
of Mahomet — not by him to be converted ! He
reached Venice early in the year 1524, but not with
out miraculous escapes. A difficult task it is to cull
from the heap, those genuine anecdotes which
might serve to throw light upon Loyola's personal
character, and to reject those copious decorations
which not merely overload the story, but convey
a false impression of the man. The picture which
shows the holy pilgrim safely setting foot again
upon the shores of Italy, exhibits, in each of its
corners a shipwreck, and " all on board, crew and
passengers, perishing !" The commander of one
of these lost barks had refused to take Loyola on
board, unprovided, as he was, with money to pay
the passage. "But he is a holy man," said his
companions. " If as holy as St. /ames, he my get
across the sea in the same manner as he."

The saint's equipments at this time were as bare
as his purse was light ; and we are told that the
winter was unusually rigorous. An open corslet,
slashed in the sleeves, a scanty cloak, breeches
reaching only to the knees, and his legs quite bare.
Happily his vow to visit the Holy Land barefoot,

76 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

did not include any conditions as to his return— a
return not having come within his purpose— and
therefore it was with a clear conscience that, when
compelled to return, he could allow himself the
luxury of shoes. The voyage from Cyprus had
consumed more than two months.

At Venice he was again kindly entertained by
the Spaniard who had received him under his root
before his departure for Palestine : and by the same
friend he was re-clad, and supplied with money for
his homeward journey. Acquiescing, as he did, in
the divine will, so clearly indicated, which forbad
his attempting any good work in the East, he now
revolved his future course, and anxiously considered
to what field of labor he should direct himself. His"
decision shows us something of the man we are in
quest of. He determined to return to Barcelona,
and there to apply to those studies which would
qualify him the better for taking the care of souls.
He left Venice, therefore, on his way to Genoa. At
Ferrara, having bestowed an alms upon a mendi
cant, he was soon surrounded by a swarm, among
whom he distributed the entire contents of his
purse, and thus, with his journey in prospect, re
duced himself instantly to the necessity of begging
his daily bread ! Curious illustration of the alter
nate sway of reason, and of non-reason, within a
vigorous mind ! Might not the gold pieces he had
been furnished with have been well employed in
furtherance of the very intention of his return to
Barcelona ? If we might here pause a moment to
find fault with the religious system under which
Loyola had been trained, it must be on the ground.

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 7?

not so much of its feeding the vulgar with childish
illusions, as of its shedding absurdity — which it
has always done — into the best constructed minds,
so that moral grandeur and puerility, sublimity and
nonsense, walk on either hand of each of the
church's heroes.

On his onward way Loyola passed alternately
the lines of the hostile armies of France and of the
Empire. By his countrymen in arms, whom he
encountered, he was urged to betake himself to a
safer line of road ; but he rejected their advice, for
it was plainly reasonable, and persisted in continu
ing a route whereon ill-treatment or death was sure
to meet him ; and so it presently happened ; for he
was apprehended as a spy, was grievously mal
treated, and hardly suffered to proceed. The cir
cumstances, if we may suppose them to be truly re
ported, are characteristic : —

After having been strictly searched by the guard,
on the supposition of his being the bearer of letters
to the enemy, he was carried before the officer in
command of a fortified place ; and is it not a disci
ple of George Fox whom we there find undergoing
examination before a justice of the peace ? It had
been, we are told, the custom of the holy pilgrim,
with whomsoever he might hold converse, and
whatever might be their degree, to drop all desig
nations of rank, of office, or of honor, as reputed
among men, and to content himself with the simple
pronoun, '-'Ye." The conscience of our Ignatius
allows him to use, if not a " My lord," an adulatory
plural in place of a singular : — he can say Yos, for
Tu ! He piously believed that he thus conformed

78 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

himself to the style of " Christ, and the Apostles."
But how so, we might well ask, when we find that
apostle who had most to do with the world, and
who understood its requirements best, and who, at
the same time, was inferior to none of the twelve in
knowing " the mind of Christ," still used on all oc
casions, and even when the honorary designation
sounded like a satire upon the person, every cus
tomary appellative of courtesy ?

But our Ignatius is waiting to be led before the
prefect. We have mentioned what his manner of
speech had "hitherto been. On his way from the
guard-house to the hall, the thought had presented
itself — not suggested, we are told, by any movement
of fear — that, in this instance, he would hold apos
tolic simplicity in abeyance, and address the person
in authority by his title of office. This suggestion,
however, he quickly perceived to be a temptation,
and, as such, he dismissed it. " No," said he, to
himself, " I will neither call him 'my lord,' nor bend
the knee in his presence, nor put off my bonnet."

After some delay he is brought forward. Not a
movement or gesture of civility does he vouchsafe.
A few brief words, with a sufficiently long interval
between each clause, is all the communication he
deigns to make. The prefect, who, no doubt, had
business enough upon his hands that morning, takes
him for a fool, or a madman. " Give him," says
he to the guard, " what belongs to him (his gar
ments, of which he had been stripped), and send
him off." The prefect was quite wrong in taking
Loyola for either fool or madman, in the ordinary
sense of the terms ; for his absurdity sprang from a

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 79

folly and from an insanity of that kind into which
no actual fool or madman ever falls.

We need not follow the track of unimportant
and not significant incidents that attended his on
ward journey ; and may well omit, also, the highly
decorated adventures introduced by some of the
biographers. He reaches Genoa ; — by the good
offices of a countryman, he is there put on board
a vessel sailing for Barcelona, and which narrowly
escapes capture by the noted Andrea Doria, and
he safely sets foot again upon Spanish ground.

CHAPTER IV.

LOYOLA, IN PREPARATION FOR THE WORK TO
WHICH HE DEVOTES HIMSELF, GOES TO SCHOOL
AT BARCELONA, AND ELSEWHERE.

AT Barcelona, and during his former sojourn
there, Loyola had gained the good-will of a devout
lady, named Isabel Rosella, to whom now, on his
return, he communicated his design of going through
a course of elementary instruction, the better to fit
him for the work to which he wished to devote him
self — namely, the care of souls. This lady and
patron, along with a schoolmaster of the city,
named Ardebal, highly approved his plan, and the
latter benevolently undertook to direct his studies
without fee ; while the former pledged herself to
supply the means of his support. Thus confirmed
in his purpose, and thus assisted, he took his Latin
grammar in hand.

His first impulse had been (so it is affirmed) to
introduce himself into some religious house, where
discipline was at the lowest ebb, and where disor
ders were flagrant ; and when he had thus lodged
himself at the very centre of corruption, to apply
himself to the task of bringing back the community
to virtue, to piety, and to the rule of its founder.
But after much prayer, with fasting, he believed
himself to be divinely moved to reject a design ap-

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 81

parently so commendable : and the alleged ground
of this decision should be noted. He would not
shut himself up within the narrow precincts of any
one community ; he would not restrict the field of
those energies which were struggling in his bosom,
and for the exercise of Avhich the world was not too
wide a sphere.

Resolutely, therefore, he now addressed himself
to his task ; and how arduous and how repulsive
must have been the daily effort of acquiring the
very rudiments of learning to a man trained as he
had been, and now past his thirtieth year ! And
yet this mere difficulty of learning was not the only
trial of constancy which he had to encounter, for so
fixed had the devotional habits of his mind now be
come, and with such impetus and velocity did his
thoughts rush forward in the channel of the pious
affections, that, as often as, in the declension of
nouns, or the conjugation of verbs, the words were
such as to suggest ideas of religion, his whole soul
was on the wing ; — grammar — teacher — all was
forgotten, and whatever lie might already have
learned was clean erased from his memory : every
thing was to be commenced afresh ! Of this new
perplexity the tempter took advantage, using the
lure of things sacred for the very purpose of divert
ing Ignatius from his studies, and sometimes even
giving him sudden insights of the mysteries of faith !
He however discerned this artifice, learned how to
baffle the adversary on his own ground, and thus
acquired a species of skill of which he afterwards
often availed himself, to the great benefit of the

many souls that came under his care.

. 4*

82 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Near to the school which he attended there was
a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, where,
after having duly poured forth his petitions to God
and the Virgin, he opened all his mind and purpose
to his friend and master Ardebal ; he professed anew
and more explicitly his determination to persist in
his studies through two years, or longer if needful,
and to yield himself, without distinction, to every
task, and to submit to every chastisement which,
according to the usage of the school, would be in
flicted upon boys not making more progress than
himself. This profession, made in all sincerity by
Loyola, was accepted, and, it is affirmed, was acted
upon by his master ; and it has been thought an
edifying device to place before the world, some touch
ing representations of the scene, when the great
founder submissively, and with tears, was yielding
his adult person to a smart infliction, administered
by his faithfully wrathful pedagogue ! " Saint
Ignatius, whipped at school !"

About this time, finding his constitutional habit
improved, he entered anew upon some practices of
mortification which he had found it prudent or ne
cessary to relinquish. For instance, the wearing
of shoes had become indispensable to him on ac
count of his susceptibility to damps and chills.
Now, however, a harsher treatment of the body was
practicable ; he therefore bored a hole in the sole
of each shoe, which every day he enlarged a little,
until at length everything but the upper leathers
was gone. How can we enough admire this ming
ling of mortification and of prudence ! To have
waited the operation of wear-and-tear would have

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 83

been too tardy a course ; and to have removed the
soles at once, too hazardous : moreover, by retain
ing the upper leather, which was but a sorry com
fort to the flesh, he avoided the ostentation of going
barefoot : none perhaps took notice of his want of
soles, unless it were those who might too curiously
observe him as he knelt at church.

At this time it had been recommended to Ig
natius, as the best means of acquiring an elegant
Latin style, carefully to peruse Erasmus's " Chris
tian Soldier's Manual." He took it up, therefore,
for this purpose, but had not advanced far before he
found that it chilled the fervor of his soul ; and on
this account he did not hesitate to cast it from him.
Never again would he look into this book himself,
and years afterwards, when General of his order, he
strictly forbade the reading of any of the works of
that writer within the Society. Not that he im
puted to his pages the poison of heresy ; but he ap
prehended that the blandishments of the style — the
sarcasian vein, and the flowing eloquence — would
beguile souls from their simplicity. It was quite
otherwise with the " De Imitatione" of Thomas a
Kempis, which he read and studied with the live
liest pleasure, and the highest advantage. In fact,
his admirers have said of him that he himself be
came a perfect exemplification, or living exhibition,
of the golden precepts of that unequalled book.

At length, and having made some little progress
in the acquisition of the Latin language, he bid
adieu to his kind preceptor Ardebal, and to his friend
and patroness Isabel Rosella ; and, with the view of
prosecuting the higher branches of study to more

84 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

advantage than he could at Barcelona, he resolved
to proceed to the university of Alsala,* where he
arrived in the year 1526.

Entering the common hall with some who had
joined themselves to him, and proposing to sustain
himself by the casual alms of the charitable, he ap
plied himself, with great but indiscriminate ardor,
to everything at once, and thus rather burdened and
perplexed his faculties, than made solid progress in
learning. Moreover his strength was often ex
hausted, and his time consumed, in the perpetual
labor of providing, by mendication, not merely for
his own wants, but for those of his companions in
study and in poverty, and who had too easily
learned to depend upon his greater success and
assiduity in collecting alms. Nor was this the only
hindrance wrhich came in the way of his advance
ment, for his zeal for the recovery of wandering
souls to the worship and service of God could not
be repressed ; — in college halls, in the streets and
lanes of the city, and wherever he found any, of
whatever class or age, who would listen to him, he
ceased not to hold discourse with them, as hereto
fore at Manresa, and not without remarkable success.
This course, however, attracted too much notoriety,
and drew upon him various sinister suspicions ; nor
was this surprising at a time when, throughout
Spain, or elsewhere, the venom of "German heresy"
was carried about by the bold and industrious
"agents of Satan." Was it not probable, said some,
that this restless man — everywhere preaching in the
streets, and whispering in the ears of the people—
* Complutum, founded by Ximenes.

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 85

was himself a Lutheran, or a sorcerer, or a some
thing not less pestiferous ? The hearts of men, it
was manifest, were dangerously swayed by the dis
courses of this Ignatius. A report of what was
going on at length reached the holy office at Toledo,
and the holy inquisitors hastened to Alcala, where,
after having informed themselves, in their accus
tomed modes, of the whole matter, they felt satis
fied that there was no real cause of alarm ; and in
taking their departure they commended Ignatius
and his companions to the vigilant regards of the
vicar-archbishop, who, after a renewed inquiry, and
a close conversation with him, was content with in
sisting only on this precautionary measure, namely,
that Loyola and his companions, instead of habiting
themselves in precisely the same mode — in cloaks
of undyed wool — should assume different colors,
lest the uniformity of their attire should suggest the
idea of their being the originators of a sect, or of
their attempting, without authority, to found an
order. Loyola, always forward "to obey magis
trates" (when they did not attempt to thwart his
fixed purposes) yielded at once to this reasonable
injunction.

New suspicions were, however, perpetually spring
ing up, and bringing him into jeopardy. His desti
tute condition at Alcala had moved the pity of
some who obtained for him a lodgment within the
precincts of an hospital. Here he had passed four
months, when one morning a sergeant met him at
Jie door, and led him away to jail — no cause as
signed. Here he remained some while, free access
to him being allowed ; and during this time he ad-

86 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ministered counsel, in his usual mode, to all who
sought it, and to many he delivered suitable por
tions of the "Spiritual Exercises." Advocates
offered him their services to procure his liberation ;
but he chose rather to wait passively the course of
things. " He for love of whom I am come hither,
will lead me hence Avhen it shall please Him :" —
such was his reply to a noble lady who would fain
have used her influence on his behalf.

At length the vicar-general of Alcala, John Rod-
riquez Figueroa, under whose eye the officers of
the Inquisition had left Loyola, visited and ques
tioned him. " Do you know anything of two ladies,
mother and daughter, both widows, and the younger
very handsome ?" — " Yes, truly." " Know you any
thing of their departure from Alcala ? Did you
know of their intention to leave their homes ?" —
" Solemnly, and by my vow I knew it not." " But
it is on account of these ladies that you have been
thrown into prison." Loyola, in fact, had endeav
ored to repress the irregular zeal of these ladies,
and it seems that they had set out on a wild errand,
contrary to his advice, or at least without his im
mediate cognizance.

" Women," we are told, " carry everything to ex
tremes, and the ladies of Spain especially." Be
this as it may, it appears that this mother and
daughter had so profited by Loyola's instructions,
that their religious zeal could brook no restraints —
could listen to no admonitions of prudence, not
even from the lips of their admired teacher ! Al
ready they had performed one pilgrimage on foot ;
and now they had resolved to set out in the same

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 87

manner, and to beg their bread from town to town
throughout Spain, visiting every hospital, and min
istering to the sick in each. In vain did Loyola,
who knew well what must be the risks of such an
enterprise to such persons, remind them that there
were sick poor enough in Alcala to employ all their
time. This was nothing ;— there would have been
no romance in doing good so near at home. At
first, indeed, they yielded obedience to their teacher,
or were awed by that tone of authority which be
longed to the embryo General of the Society of
Jesus. But at length the charms of this ramble of
mercy prevailed over all contrary motives, and they
absconded. The ecclesiastic who was their guard
ian, knowing who it was that had at the first turned
the heads of his wards, applied to the vicar-general,
and obtained Loyola's arrest.

Six weeks had elapsed since his commitment to
prison, when the ladies-errant returned to their
home, and, as their testimony accorded with Loyo
la's affirmations, he was set at liberty : yet subject to
a condition with which he could not comply —
namely, that he should abstain from all endeavors
to instruct others, until he should himself have be
come qualified to do so with good effect, by com
pleting his four years of study. How could he con
sent to postpone so long all endeavors to reclaim
souls, and on the sole ground of his unfinished edu
cation ? He left the prison in perplexity, resolving
to depart from Alcala, and to submit himself to the
advice (or at least to ask the advice) of some dig
nitary more indulgent than the vicar-general Figu-
eroa.

88 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

" We should not," said this ecclesiastic, " have
made so much of what you do, if your discourses
with the people had savored rather less of novelty."
" Novelty !" exclaimed Ignatius, gravely, " I did not
understand that for Christians to speak one to an
other, concerning- Jesus Christ, was a new thing."

Don Alphonso de Fonseca, archbishop of Toledo,
received Loyola courteously, and finding that he
wished to proceed to Salamanca, favored this inten
tion, gave him introductions, and replenished his
purse with four gold pieces. He therefore set for
ward, with his companions, on his way thither. Yet
neither at this place did repose await him. The
same course of conduct — the same boldness and
assiduity in addressing persons of every rank, and
exhorting them to repentance and piety, drew upon
him again the eyes of the profane and the envious,
and rendered him the object of curiosity throughout
the city. A strange sight indeed it was to see a
band of laymen, in the garb of poor students of
Alcala— for thus they had been compelled to attire
themselves by their friends there — discharging,
openly and boldly, a sort of apostolic and pastoral
function, and drawing even priests within their in
fluence ! Admired, followed, suspected, inveighed
against, this band of itinerants became the subject
of secret and anxious consultations within ecclesi
astical precincts. The Dominicans especially, who
had a noted establishment at Salamanca — the mon
astery of St. Stephen— thought themselves called
upon, although without any authority, to search
this novelty to its rudiments. Ignatius, unapprized
of this intention, had, in all simplicity, chosen a con-

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 89

fessor from this very house. This circumstance
having been made known to the principals, Ignatius
was perfidiously invited to dine at the convent the
next Sunday, with his friend Calistus. Advertised
that he was likely to undergo a rigorous examina
tion, he nevertheless fearlessly kept the appoint
ment, and went, he and his companion. Dinner
ended, the vicar — in the absence of the prior — court
eously leads both his guests, with the confessor and
another brother, to a cell, apart. Each takes his
seat, and a colloquy passes within the walls of this
cell which is curiously analogous to those that, so
often since, have had place in Protestant countries,
when lay street-preachers have been called before
" the bench." If in this instance we may rely upon
our reporters, the substance of the interrogations,
and of the answers, was as follows : —

The vicar, looking at Ignatius with a bland smile,
expressed the pleasure he felt in thinking of the
course of those who, after the manner of the Apos
tles, went about among the people, inciting them
to the worship of God, and the practice of piety ;
nevertheless he earnestly wished to know with what
preparation of learning they had attempted so seri
ous a task. Ignatius ingenuously acknowledged
the simple fact — that he and his companions were
very slenderly furnished in this way. "How is it,
then," said the vicar, " that you, destitute as you
are of learning, should go about, holding discourse
with the people upon things divine?" " Nay," re
plied Ignatius, " we do not preach ; but only, as
occasion offers, and on the ground of equality with
those who are willing to listen to us, and in collo-

90 IGNATIUS LOYOLA

quial style, we speak of the beauty of virtue, and
of the deformity of vice, and exhort men to hate the
one. and to love the other." " But apart from a due
amount of human learning, which must be either
acquired in the ordinary mode, from tutors and from
books, or must be divinely conveyed to the mind by
•the Holy Spirit — apart from this preparation, no
man can properly handle subjects of this sort ; and
yet you, as you openly acknowledge, have not given
yourselves, with any sufficient assiduity, either to
books or to teachers ; it follows, then, necessarily,
that this species of learning must have been imme
diately conveyed to you by the Holy Spirit. Give
us, therefore, if you please, some information on this
point."

Ignatius, perceiving the intention of the vicar to
hold him to a dilemma, hesitated awhile ; but the
vicar persisting in pressing for a reply to a question
so plain, he at length openly said that he had no
thing further to state, unless it were to those who
might be duly authorized so to interrogate him.
" Oh ! is it come to that ?" exclaimed the vicar, " is
it so that, at a time when new sects of impostors
are every day making their appearance, and are
leading multitudes astray, and when the errors of
Erasmus and others are spreading on every side,
that you, when questioned concerning your doc
trine, equivocate and evade a direct reply ? But I
will see to it that you shall give us an answer."
Three days they were detained within the walls
of the monastery, yet not unkindly treated by the
brethren, with whom they held free intercourse,

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 91

and among whom a division took place in their fa
vor.

On the fourth day they were visited by the notary,
who led them away, and lodged them, not in a dun
geon, under ground, but in a sort of out-house,
where they fared even worse : it was a decayed
structure, with heaps of rubbish, the smells from
which were pestilential. The two friends were
fastened, leg to leg, with an iron chain— nor was it
possible for them to take rest. They spent the
night in singing psalms.

But the imprisonment of Ignatius and his com
panion quickly became noised through the city, and
the next day not a few of the most considerable
persons of Salamanca visited them, bringing for
their relief coverlets, mattresses, and provisions.
The severity of their treatment, too, was somewhat
relaxed ; and as at Alcala, so now at Salamanca,
Ignatius was resorted to by multitudes, to whom,
with wTonderful calmness, he discoursed on such
topics as the contempt of things earthly, the last
judgment, and the eternal rewards and punishments
that were to follow. "Is not this imprisonment
grievous to you T said a compassionate visitant —
Francis Mendoza, " and these chains, too ?" " There
are not in Salamanca," replied Ignatius, " stocks or
handcuffs so many as that I would not gladly en
dure them all, and more, for Christ's sake."

At length he and his companion underwent strict,
varied, and separate examinations, by the ecclesias
tical authorities of Salamanca. One of them had
heard of the Book of Spiritual Exercises, and asked
that it should be produced : it was at once surren-

92 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

dered and the names of his other associates, and the
places of their abode, were given in. These were
arrested, and confined separately. The book was
submitted to the examination of three doctors in
theology. At this point of time an incident oc
curred (so say our authorities, but not the most
trustworthy of them) which tended greatly to set
the characters of Loyola and his comrades in an
advantageous light. By some strange negligence
of the keepers, all the prisoners save these, breaking
from their confinements, effected their escape. He
and his friend — although they were free to depart
with the others — were found in their cells the fol
lowing morning, scorning to elude the authorities.
Much admiration, and a more lenient treatment,
were the consequence of this event. In the end,
the result of often-repeated interrogations, and of a
careful perusal of the Exercises, was a feeling of
amazement on the part of the examiners, and which
was increased vastly when, certain questions among
the most abstruse and perplexing in theology being
propounded to Ignatius, he answered each with
admirable address ; and moreover solved a knotty
point in the canon law precisely in accordance with
the decision of the doctors, of which he had known
nothing.

At length, and after more than three weeks1 im
prisonment, Ignatius and his friends are brought
into court to hear their sentence. This was, that
they were declared innocent of heretical pravity,
and that they should be left at liberty to instruct
the common people, as before ; but nevertheless
that they should not presume, until after four years'

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 93

attendance upon the theological class, to advance
any opinion upon that most difficult of all questions
which serves to distinguish between mortal and
venial offences — questions to which an approach
seemed to be made in a certain part of the Spiritual
Exercises. This sentence, in the opinion of the
judges, was nothing less than an honorable ac
quittal. Ignatius, however, sustained as he was
by his firm consciousness of being altogether in the
right, vehemently resented the restraint thus laid
upon him, and complained that, after by these
doctors and rulers he had been pronounced free, in
speech and writing, from all taint and suspicion of
false doctrine, silence should nevertheless be en
joined him upon a point so prominent and so essen
tial ; and that thus his labors, for the conversion
and instruction of men, should be in a manner pro
hibited.

Already he had harbored a design which this re
strictive sentence induced him at once to adopt ;
and now finding that, throughout Spain, obstacles
of this same kind were likely to be thrown in the
way of his evangelic labors, he determined to repair
to the University of Paris, there to complete his
academic course, or rather to commence it, for as
yet he had made but little progress. In addition
to the high celebrity of that seat of learning at this
time, a motive with Loyola for going thither was,
the consideration that his ignorance of the language
of the country would necessarily exempt him from
those labors which heretofore had so much inter
fered with his studies. Nor did he doubt that at
Paris — the centre of the intellectual energies of

94 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Christendom— he should form acquaintance with
some whom he might induce to assist him in giving
effect to the institute he had devised.

The companions whom Ignatius had gathered
around him in Spain— perhaps the risks they had
so lately incurred had cooled their zeal— were little
inclined to accompany him on a journey so long
and so perilous as that which he now proposed for
himself. By consent of all he was to go forward
alone, and to summon them to follow him if he
should find all things favoring such a course : or,
if not, they were to await severally some future
day when they might re-assemble under happier
auspices.

Many, but fruitless, were the entreaties of Lo
yola's friends — and some of them persons of rank-
not to abandon them. Disregarding all, he starts
on his way to Barcelona, on foot, and driving be
fore him an ass, furnished Avith panniers, which
contained his college books. Among his warm
friends at Barcelona his constancy encountered a
new and more severe trial, for they, with the most
urgent entreaties, sustained by valid reasons, sought
to turn him from a purpose so fraught with perils
in the execution. War raging at that time be
tween Spain and France, the border provinces, on
both sides, swarmed with freebooters of the most
ferocious sort, by whose hands many had already
fallen. These representations, just as they were,
could not be listened to by Ignatius ; nevertheless
it had not been quite in vain that he had traversed
lands and seas as far as to the Holy City and back,
with a purse emptied by himself at starting. His

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 95

native sense had- now taught him to judge better
between the claims of faith and of reason ; and he
accepted from his friends as well money, as letters
of credit, to an extent sufficient both to defray the
expenses of his journey, and to provide him with
things indispensible when he should reach Paris.
Here, then, is the founder of the Society a step
further advanced in that course of individual de
velopment which was at length to bring the intel
lectual faculty into a commanding position, as re
lated to his moral and religious impulses. Not only
has he, after making full trial of the special diffi
culties which a man of his years must encounter
in such a coarse, resolved anew to possess himself
of the aids of human learning, but, abandoning the
crazy purpose of absolute poverty and way-side
begging, he now sets out with a purse reasonably
furnished in his girdle ; and beyond this, and in
further abjuration of the principle of throwing away
ordinary means of support in order to live by mir
acle, he carries letters, such as the men of this world
would furnish themselves with, in similar circum
stances ! And see him urging the sluggish paces
of his beast, the back of which is loaded with
human learning ! Loyola's enthusiasm is pushed
off, inch by inch, from the place of power within
his mind.

He set out in the depth of a severe winter alone,
on foot, and without a guide. It was in the first
days of the year 1528 that he left Barcelona, and
he reached Paris in the beginning of February.
Finding that his former studies had been well-nigh
fruitless, he now resolved to devote himself, without

96 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

distraction, to the one object he had in view. He
had at length learned, and he ingenuously acknowl
edged the fact, that the human mind— certainly his
own, could not, with advantage, be distracted by
divers and incompatible purposes.

He entered himself a scholar at Montague Col
lege ; and although of adult years, yet he placed
himself among boys, with them to acquire— as if
his past acquirements were to be accounted as of
no value — the very rudiments of learning. He even
diminished those exercises of piety and of personal
discipline in which heretofore he had consumed a
large portion of his time ; holding nevertheless to
his usage of hearing mass daily, of communicating
once a week, and of going through with his own
method of spiritual exercise — taking the occasion,
twice every day, to compare himself, as to his re
ligious condition and conduct — day with day — week
with week — month with month ; noting faithfully
every indication either of progress or of decline. Al
though he did not absolutely abstain from his ac
customed labors for the spiritual good of others, he
brought all such occupations within very narrow
limits.

Loyola had lodged the money he brought with
him in the hands of a faithless Spaniard, the sharer
of his lodgings, from whom, when he needed it, he
could obtain nothing. He was thus again suddenly
reduced to the cruel necessity of subsisting, from
day to day, upon casual alms — a mode of living
which he had found to be wholly incompatible
with his advancement in learning. At length,
however, he obtained admission into the hospital

HIS ELKMENTAHY STUDIES. 97

of St. James ; but this was at a distance from col
lege, and moreover the regulations of the hospital
and of the university were incompatible, inasmuch
as, from the former, no egress was permitted before
sunrise, and no admittance after sunset; but at
college the classes were opened before day-break,
and were not closed until after sunset. Much
time, therefore, was lost to him from the hours of
every day. After resorting to various expedients
with the hope of remedying these inconveniences,
he at length, and on the suggestion of his Spanish
friends, repaired several times during the recesses
to Belgium, and afterwards to England, where he
found wealthy Spanish merchants, whose annual
liberality enabled him to complete the period of his
college course without distraction.

He had now completed his humanity course, and
also in the next three years he had studied philoso
phy with great credit, in which he took his degree.
He attended, moreover, a course of theology with
the Dominicans, and was reported to have become
thoroughly cmalified to hold discourse, and to in
struct others in the mysteries of the faith. The
habit of his mind, and its tendency toward abso
lutism, is well indicated by what he tells us was the
method he employed for the better securing, on his
own part, an instantaneous and unquestioning com
pliance with the commands of his college preceptor,
or with the instructions conveyed to him by others
in subordinate positions. The head master he
brought himself to think of as Christ; while to
others, severally, he assigned the names of the
Apostles — mentally calling one Peter, another John,

98 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

another Paul. Thus he broke down within him
self the principle of self-will, by a quaintly imagined
fiction, which lent the force and sanction of Heaven
to every syllable that might be uttered either by his
instructors or his companions.

His scholastic course being thus far concluded,
Loyola began to resume his former practices of pro
miscuous teaching and exhortation, as opportunity
presented itself. These labors, carried on in that
earnest manner which was his characteristic, and
with that success which such earnestness always
insures, quickly drew attention, and as soon excited
active jealousies. The instance of three young
Spaniards whom he had induced to distribute all
their means of subsistence among the poor, and
then to live by alms, as he himself did, made their
friends his determined enemies, and in consequence
he was reported to the inquisitor — Matthew Ori,
who, as a delegate of the holy office, exercised his
functions in France, by the leave or connivance of
the government. This sort of extension of the
powers of the Inquisition beyond the limits of the
countries wherein its existence was legally recog
nized, had obtained in France, although at times
it had been in abeyance, or had been withdrawn, in
deference to the wishes of the monarch, or to the
known feeling of the Galilean church. Before this
functionary Loyola was cited to appear.

Meantime it had happened that the Spaniard who
had absconded with the funds entrusted to him,
wrote from Rouen, declaring himself to be lying ill,
and in the most extreme destitution. Loyola did not
hesitate a moment in setting out to administer re-

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 99

lief to his faithless countryman. We are assured
that he set out to do so without taking food, and
barefoot also ; hoping, as it seems, by this supereroga
tory severity, to obtain grace from Heaven for th^
offending object of his journey. Thus fasting, and
barefoot, and in alternations of spiritual depression
and exultation, he reached Rouen, and there having
begged alms in behalf of his destitute comrade,
sent him forward by ship to Spain. On his return
to Paris he waited upon the inquisitor ; but was
presently discharged. Loyola's turn of mind being j
altogether practical and ethical, not theoretic, or'
logical, or intellectual, and therefore not inclining
him, in any degree, to call in question the dogmas
of the church, or to excite inquiry concerning them \
in the minds of others, he found it easy to satisfy
the ecclesiastical authorities before which he wrasso
often cited, as to his unqualified and unquestioning
adherence to the faith and teaching of the church
on all those points which had then come to be dis
tinctive of orthodoxy and of heresy. Loyola believed
with the church — point for point, and without a
scruple, or a shadow of dissent.

It was not, however, so easy for him to avoid ex
citing the jealousies of the college authorities by the
extraordinary influence which he had acquired over
the minds of young persons. It would be a hope
less task, with no evidence before us but such as
Loyola's biographers think fit to furnish, to attempt
to balance the account between him and his adver
saries on this ground, or to decide how far the in
discretions of his zeal might have given them fail-
occasion against him. It is not easy even to deter-

100 HI MATH'S hOYOJ.A.

mine whether the narratives of these contests, and
of the saint's sufferings, escapes, and triumphs, are
at all authentic. Some of these stones carry upon
them a very suspicious aspect; and we should bo
inclined to consider those of them which Gonsalvo
passes over in silence, or to which lie makes only a
passing allusion, as, at the best, apocryphal. Lo
yola himself, we may safely conclude, either knew
nothing of such incidents, or he thought that they
formed no edifying portion of his personal history;
and if so, \ve ought to regard him as a better judge
than his overweening friends could be, of what was
titling to be told of him.

Of this sort is the story of his having been ad
judged to receive in the college hall a public and
infamous chastisement, as a corrupter of youth—
of his willingness to undergo this undeserved pun
ishment, regarding it merely as a means of pro
moting his individual advancement in Christian
mortification — of his scruple, on the ground of the
ill-influence it might have on the minds of those for
whose spiritual welfare he was concerned — of his
ingenuous statement of their "case of conscience"
''i his superior, and of his consequent triumph and
public recognition as " a' saint."

Among those youths who had frequented his
society, and submitted themselves to his direction,
several had, after a while, turned aside, addicting
themselves to courses of worldly ambition or of
pleasure,: and of these, several instances are cited,
showing how the apostates were followed by the
anger of Heaven till they miserably perished. But
Loyola had now learned more rrnuion in the choice

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 101

of friends; and lie was one to turn to the best
practical account every instance of disappointment.
Having completed his course of study, and believ
ing himself called of God to attempt great things,
he looked around in search of those who should
be his companions and coadjutors ; and his choice
seems to have been in each instance fortunate.

CHAPTER V.

LOYOLA'S COLLEAGUES, AND THE BIRTH OF THE

SOCIETY.

LOYOLA had, as we have said, given evidence of
the strength of his will in carrying forward, through
a period of six years, the plan he had formed for
his personal improvement ; and the necessities he
had submitted to during these years of study, severe
as they were, had probably tried his constancy not
nearly so much as did the repugnance of his own
mind to occupations that were purely intellectual.
A conquest of the animal nature is what many have
been equal to: but to contravene the mental bias,
and to control the tastes, is a victory which very few
ever achieve. In this instance it appeared that the
man who was born to govern others, established his
title to do so by first showing that he could abso
lutely govern himself, and that he could do so on
ground the most difficult.

This faculty of governing others, and this fasci
nation, which gave him the ascendency over minds
much superior in intelligence and in accomplish
ments to his own, undoubtedly belonged to him in
an eminent degree. It is certain that he knew how
to draw around himself persons of rank and educa
tion, as well as the vulgar. There was a charm in
his personal appearance and demeanor; there was

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS.

103

an animation and a fire, subdued by humility and
suavity ; and, more than all, there was an undevi-
ating intensity of movement, directed toward a high-
raised object, which drew all sensitive minds into
his wake. Perhaps the secret of that influence
which is acquired here and there by a gifted mind
over multitudes, results chiefly from the very power
or' a steady and rapid movement to impart move
ment to others.

In the company of persons of rank (we are told)
Loyola had an insinuating manner, which won and
which secured to him their favor and friendship.
His equals he led forward in his own track, by a
graceful facility, and an avoidance of all assumption
of superiority ; while the ignorant and the needy he
commanded by a native air of authority, by his un
wearied, labors for their good, by his patience towards
them in their perversities, and by a species of be
nevolent dissimulation, of which he was master, and
which he could practise whenever necessary. How
far this skill in the management of human nature
approached the limits of guilefulness, or how far it
outstep-ped the boundaries which a high integrity
and a Christian simplicity must observe, cannot be
known.

Multitudes, we are assured, had Loyola converted
from the path of sin ; and more than a few from the
paths of heresy. At the -time of which we are
speaking "the plague of Lutheranism" was rapidly
spreading on all sides; but, by timely admonition,
and suitable remonstrances, he had induced many
of the infected to present themselves before the in
quisitorial tribunals, and to reconcile themselves to

104 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the Catholic Church. His success in these labors
had of late been much promoted by the aid he re
ceived from several accomplished and devoted young
men, whom he had attached to himself, and who
were willing to act under his direction, and to yield
submission to him as their spiritual chief. From
the moment when we find Loyola thus surrounded
by disciples and coadjutors, while we must do him
so much the more honor, as being the master mind
among minds of no common order, it becomes diffi
cult or quite impracticable thenceforward to assign
him his individual share in the united labors of the
company. Great reason is there to believe, that to
the superior intelligence of two or three of the dis
tinguished men whose names are henceforward to
be associated with his own, he was indebted for the
more profound provisions of that code which has
given permanence and efficiency to the order of
Jesuits. From this time onward, therefore, we are
contemplating the concerted movement of a cluster
of minds, and can claim for Loyola only in particu
lar instances, what undoubtedly belongs to him.

The first on the list of the founders of Jesuitism,
is Peter Faber, a Savoyard. He was of humble
origin, but had acquired the rudiments at least of
learning in early life. It was his thirst for knowl
edge that had brought him where Loyola made that
acquaintance with him, which ripened quickly into
an intimate friendship. This young man, in fact,
placed himself in the hands of " his Ignatius" as a
skilful and experienced physician of souls. Readily
he consented to pass through the discipline of the
Spiritual Exercises, such as then it was. In truth,

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS. 105

it appears that Loyola, from the first, exacted this
act of compliance from each of his associates. Fa-
ber's case was one of many in dealing with which
his friend seems to have exercised as much discretion
as might consist with his adherence to a wrong
principle — the great practical error of his church.
In boyhood — perhaps it might have been in child
hood, and during a season of religious fervor, such
as frequently marks the first developments of the
moral life in those who afterwards become remark-
aqle for the depth and intensity of their piety, — in
such a season, Faber, knowing nothing of what an
engagement of this kind involved, and ignorant of
himself and of everything but the merely exterior
import of his vow, had, by a solemn oath, devoted
himself to perpetual chastity ; and probably this
mischievous prank had been sanctioned and ap
plauded by those about him ! But the ill conse
quences of this act broke out within him in theii
season ; and he awoke too late to a consciousness
—not indeed of his error — but of his misery. None
were at hand to" give him that simple advice whicli
virtue and Christianity would at once have offered ;
and, from his friend, Ignatius, he received the
soundest sort of^reatment' which the ascetic quack
ery has at its command. Tormented by nature,
arid by his vow, the youth would have rushed into
the desert, vainly supposing that he might leave the
combatants behind him. His friend said no — you
will there find no relief : — remember the instance of
that great saint, Jerome, who complains that in
the very heart of the desert of Judaea, he found
himself surrounded with the meretricious allure-

106 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ments of Rome ! You will carry your enemy with
you : do not suppose that the most extreme auster
ities will alone avail to give you relief ! Men re
duced to mere shadows or skeletons, by fasting and
watching, have confessed that these severities had
been, in their case, wholly unavailing.

We are told that Loyola completely succeeded in
imparting peace of mind to his young friend ; but
it is far from easy to understand the precise means
which he put in practice for this purpose. We
may however safely conclude that, of whatever
kind Loyola's curative devices might be, the cure
he effected — so far as a cure was effected — was
brought about mainly by the mere sympathy and
contact of intense religious feeling, aided, no doubt,
by the gradual unfolding of those vast designs
which Loyola was then digesting. A glimpse,
from time to time afforded, of that unbounded em
pire of which he had conceived the idea — quicken
ing an ambition altogether in harmony with Faber's
state of mind, would avail infinitely more for his
deliverance from the thrall of his bosom enemy
than fastings, or the scourge ; or than Loyola's
very choicest samples of spiritual advice. In noble
natures a noble passion readily masters an ignoble.

He found a very different subject in the youth
who next came within his influence — we should
scarcely say came under his influence ; for the
high-spirited and heroic Francis Xavier seems to
have held an independent course, almost from the
first period of his associating himself with Loyola.
His was a mind, and his a moral power, which
could not permanently adapt itself to a subordinate

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS. 107

position. Xavier, named, as he must be, among
the founders of Jesuitism, has a history of his own,
and we must follow him to India to contemplate so
signal an instance of religious energy and gran
deur. He was of a noble Asturian family ; — robust
in person, handsome, accomplished, learned, and
covered with academic honors at the time when he
fell into the company, or attracted the eye of, Loyola.
Francis Xavier was high game in Loyola's view,
and he succeeded in attaching, we do not say snar
ing, him ; and yet it seems to have been by adula
tion, at first, that he achieved his conquest. But,
inasmuch as this remarkable man has had little
more to do with the Society than to lend it the
credit of his great name, and to shed upon its early
history the splendor of his virtues, and as it would
be an error to think of him as. in any intimate
sense, a Jesuit, it is enough here to name him as
one of Loyola's first converts and companions.

James Laynez, a native of New Castile, and who
succeeded Loyola in the generalship of the Society,
is the next to be named in this enumeration of its
founders. To him, it is probable, are to be assigned
the more astute portions of the Constitutions ; and,
perhaps, it was from him that the Society received
the very character which the term Jesuitism has
come populary to represent. He is reputed to have
entered his twenty-second year when he became
acquainted with Loyola. His course of study he
had pursued wTith high credit at Alcala, where he
had heard the fame of the extraordinary saint, to
whom now he made himself known. He had come
to Paris for the purpose of making further pro-

108 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

jftciency in philosophy, along with a youth from
Toledo — Alphonso Salmeron, accomplished as him
self, and like-minded. Both, at the first interview,
and as if by inspiration, surrendered themselves to
the guidance of their new friend — underwent the
initiating discipline of the Spiritual Exercises, and
came forth from the process fired with zeal, to carry
forward the apostolic intentions of their master.
Each accession of this sort greatly enhanced
Loyola's reputation, and extended his influence, and
thus rendered his next conquest so much the more
easy.

The next to be mentioned of these conquests,
although important in its consequences, was effected
under different circumstances. A young Spaniard,
named Nicholas Alphonso, and surnamed Bobadilla,
from the place of his birth, having failed to main
tain himself at Yalladolid, as a teacher, had made
his way to Paris, where, in the extremity of indi
gence, he had sought relief from his countryman —
Loyola, who, finding him endowed with extraordi
nary intelligence, had won him over to the spiritual
life, and had at length enrolled him among his col
leagues. It was, no doubt, to this skill in the dis
cernment of natural gifts, that Loyola owed much
of his success.

The sixth of this band of disciples was a young
Portuguese, named Simon Rodriquez d'Arevedo, of
good family, handsome person, and of great intelli
gence. He had been maintained at college by the
king of Portugal. He had early formed acquaint
ance with Loyola, at Paris ; but did not, till a later
time, yield himself to his influence. A rare, or, as

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS. 109

it is termed, an " angelic purity," was his distinction
by gift of nature ; and, from his earliest years, he
had indicated that the service of the church was to
be his vocation. He had, like Loyola, ardently
desired to. attempt the conversion of infidels in the
East, and would probably have set out on that er
rand, had not his friend explained to him at once
the difficulties he had himself encountered in Pal
estine, and opened before him a wide field of labor
— shall we say an ample scope — for his ambition,
nearer home. It was at a later time that to these
were added others whose names stand prominent
among the founders of the Society. They were
Claude le Jay, a Savoyard ; John Codure, and Pas-
quier Brouet, of Picardy.

It was not to all alike, or not to all with the same
ingenuousness, that Loyola had opened his bosom.
His great idea, even if well defined in his own
thoughts, had been but dimly revealed to the favored
two — Laynez and Faber. To all, however, he had
imparted a portion of his own spiritual intensity.
All were taught to believe that they were called of
Heaven in a special and peculiar sense, to carry
forward a great work ; and all (and each in propor
tion to the vagueness of his own idea concerning
it) felt as men do when a high destiny is gradually
unfolding itself before them. Moreover, as they
thought their own vocation to be of God, so did they
regard the supremacy of their chief as of divine
appointment.

Loyola well remembered the fickleness of his first
companions, most of whom had turned aside quickly
—loving this present life, like Demas. Of his pres-

110 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ent companions he thought better ; but he contem
plated for them a step which should cut off their
retreat, and render their advance necessary. Some
of the set had not yet completed their college course,
and therefore it was unavoidable to postpone, for a
time, the adoption of any measures that might be
incompatible with the prosecution of their studies.
Meanwhile it was undesirable to leave them ex
posed to the seductions of the world, or to any vac
illations of purpose : — the present purpose of each
was to be fixed by an irrevocable obligation.

The succinctness in some instances, and some
times the absolute silence, of the writer who re
ceived the materials of his Memoir from his mas
ter's lips, compels us often, and on the most memo
rable occasions, to derive our information from those
whose style indicates a purpose, and a forethought
of consequences, in whatever they relate. It is thus
in what belongs to the formal origination of the
Society.

It was, we are told, in a sepulchral chapel or
crypt of the church of Montmartre, rendered illus
trious as the scene of the decapitation of St. Diony-
sius — the apostle of France — that the disciples,
with their master, were assembled. And it was
appropriately on the feast of the Assumption of the
Virgin thaUthis solemn dedication of themselves
to the service of the Saviour took place, and that
the favor of " Mary, the Q,ueen of Virgins," should
thus be claimed as the protectress of an order
which makes profession of angelic purity.

One of the company, Faber, had taken priest's
orders, and from his hands the rest received " the

BIRTH OF THE SOCIETY. Ill

body of our Lord," after which, and under the di
rection of Loyola, they bound themselves by a sol
emn oath which, in its terms, included what was
general — namely, a profession of poverty, renuncia-
• tion of the world, and absolute devotion to the ser
vice of God, and the good of souls ; and also some
} special or convertible conditions — namely, to at
tempt a mission to Palestine ; or, should they be
frustrated in that design, to throw themselves at the
feet of the sovereign POD tiff, without reservation,
stipulation, or condition of any kind, offering to un
dertake any service which he, the vicar of Christ,
should appoint them to.

This vow, the rudiment of that by which after
wards every " professed" Jesuit bound himself, was
taken by these founders of the Society, August
15th, in the year 1534. For completing the aca
demic course of those of the company who had but
lately matriculated, a term of nearly three years
was allowed ; and it was formally agreed that, in
January of the year 1537, they should again as
semble, for the purpose of giving effect to their pres
ent intentions, in the mode which should then ap
pear the most advisable. During this interval of
time, each engaged, annually, and on the day of the
same festival, to renew his solemn oath. Mean
while, and constantly, each was to adhere to those
practices of devotion which Loyola had prescribed,
and from which no departure, in the smallest par
ticular, was to be allowed. On frequent and stated
occasions they met, mutually advised each other, and
celebrated a sort of love-feast, in imitation of the
primitive Agapee. He himself watched for theif

112 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

souls with incessant care, spending entire days in a
cavern at Montmartre, where, subjecting himself to
extraordinary austerities, he travailed in spirit for
his friends.

At the same time he found much occupation, we
are told, in laboring to recover from perdition a
multitude of souls that had been led astray by the
audacious followers of Luther and Calvin. Favored
or screened by some illustrious persons at court,
these seducers had proclaimed their blasphemies
aloud, even in Paris itself. With incredible assi
duity he followed the steps of these " emissaries of
Satan," and his endeavors were successful with more
than a few, whom he led into the presence of the
inquisitors, there to effect their reconciliation to the
church.

These various labors, however, together with a
renewal of his ascetic practices, seriously impaired
the health of Loyola, and brought upon him anew
some of those maladies of the stomach under which,
years before, be had severely suffered. His physi
cians were baffled, and could advise nothing but a
return to his native air. Reluctantly he consented
to abandon his companions, and to relinquish his
labors among the people ; but at length he consented
so to do, the more readily, inasmuch as this jour
ney might give him opportunity to seek out, and
perhaps to restore to piety, some of his former asso
ciates.

Another motive also, incidentally alluded to by
his biographers, influenced his determination, and
probably it had more to do with this decision than
they are willing to suppose ; we might even con-

BIRTH OF THE SOCIETY. 113

jecture that it constituted the principal reason of
his return to Spain. Would it be uncharitable to
surmise that the sagacious Loyola, understanding
human nature so well as he did, and confiding in
it so little, employed his physician's opinion as the
screen of his own previously formed purpose ?

Several of his associates, that is to say, those of
them who were his countrymen, had temporal in
terests pending in their native country, which de
manded some attention from them, previously to
their absolute renunciation of all earthly ties. It
seemed to be their duty to return to their homes,
severally, for a time, there to wind up their worldly
affairs, and to bid adieu to their relatives. But yet
for them to do so could not but be regarded as a
perilous experiment. Loyola, if he did not mistrust
his friends, naturally feared .what the consequence
of such a visit might be with some of them. While
therefore they should prosecute their studies, and
give attention to their religious duties, he offered
them his services, as their agent in duly administer
ing their worldly effects, and in thus sparing them all
the distraction of mind, and the loss of time, as well
as the moral risks, which a return to their homes
must have involved. Thus it was, as we conjec
ture, that Loyola thought ; and in fact he did thus
step in between his friends and the perils they would
otherwise have encountered. It was particularly in
behalf of his three countrymen, Xavier, Salmeron,
and Lainez, that he undertook this journey. Faber,
the only priest among them, he constituted his rep
resentative, and master of the company during his
absence.

114 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Previously, however, to his leaving Paris, he
thought it due to his position, as being now the ac
knowledged chief of a society, to obtain from the
inquisitor, before whom he had already appeared, a
formal and officially signed approbation of his doc
trine, and especially of his Book of Spiritual Exer
cises. This approval was readily granted by his
friend the inquisitor, Matthew Ori, who accom
panied this exculpatory document with a profusion
of eulogiums. Loyola by these means silenced his
calumniators, and set out on his return to Spain
with a reputation for orthodoxy, signed and sealed
by the " Holy Office." Cordially might we wish
that this great man's reputation for Christian sim
plicity — just at this point of his history — could so be
established as that it would stand fair in the eyes
of a holier tribunal than that of the Inquisition ; we
mean a truth-loving age like the present ! This
should be remembered, that a large proportion of
the incidents of Loyola's life, from the time when he
stood before the world as the head of an Order, are
taken from the acts of his canonization ; that is to
say, from the eagerly sought-for testimony of per
sons glad to contribute each his quota of marvels to
ward making up the lame of so illustrious a saint.

If the facts were indeed just what they seem to
be as related by the Jesuit writers, how miserable a
farce was it for a man when within a half hour's
walk of his paternal castle, which he is implored to
enter, and to call his own— for a man, who at the
very moment is followed by admiring crowds, and
has been met by a procession of dignitaries and
magistrates — for a man just in this position of

HIS RETURN TO SPAIN. 115

honor and of superfluity, to go hobbling through a
village, begging a morsel of bread at each cottage
door ! What can we say to instances of gigantic
nonsense such as this ; or to whom is it to be at
tributed ? not, we are fain to believe, not to Igna
tius Loyola. We must not think it possible that the
factitious religious system which had given him his
training, could so far have debauched the reason of
a man like the founder of the order of Jesuits, as
that he should make himself the hero of a perform
ance combining so much of folly, of jugglery, and
of something akin to plunder.

Mounted on a serviceable pony, which had been
purchased for him by his friends, Loyola had set
forward on his journey toward the Pyrenean boun
dary. As he crossed the range, and began to de
scend toward the valleys of Guipuscoa, he breathed
health again. He turned however from the high
road which led directly toward the castle and
domains of his brother, and betoook himself to a
less frequented mountain path. But on this road—
his coming having been noised about — he was met
by messengers, sent forward by his brother, to con
duct him to the family home. This invitation he
sternly declined ; and instead, sought shelter in an
hospital near at hand, whence, we are assured, he
issued daily to beg alms in the town. It is affirmed
that he held to this course for three months, occu
pying a pauper's bmh at the hospital of St. Mag
dalen, distributing among its inmates the sumptu
ous fare sent him daily from the castle, and
sustaining himself wholly by the contributions of
the "charitable" — that is to say, of his brother's

116 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

poor tenants and dependants, who, not ignorant of
this mendicant's quality and position, duly played
theii part — crust in hand — in this burlesque of
" holy poverty."

He was not however idle during this time ; but,
on the contrary, received all comers at the hospital,
visited from house to house, preached in churches
and by the wayside — the eager crowds climbing the
trees to catch his words. But he could not confine
himself to these easier labors. .Enjoying as he did
in this neighborhood a double influence, that, namely,
attaching to him as a noted saint, and that of which
he could not despoil himself as member of the first
family in the country, he felt himself to be in a po
sition whence he might not merely propound, but
might carry, difficult measures of reform. .The
loose manners of the clergy, and the prevalence
among them of concubinage, called for rebuke, and
he administered it even in the instance of dignita
ries ; nor did he hesitate to get enforced an obsolete
law, inflicting a public whipping upon any woman
who should usurp the costume of a lawful wife.
The due care of the poor he enjoined also ; and he
established the custom of sounding for prayers
three times in the day.

These reforms he effected with the greater ease
by means of the extreme severity of the penances
to which, at this time, and 110 doubt with a perfect
understanding of the popular mind, he subjected
himself. Fastings, flagellations, an iron girdle, and
a bristly rough shirt, submitted to by the saint, and
spoken of on all sides, made every word he uttered
a law, and effectively suppressed the murmurs of

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 117

the pampered victims of these stern measures of
reform. How could a sleek priest or a burly monk
dare to whisper a remonstrance, when the reprover
of their evil courses was seen going- in and out
among the people — a cheerful martyr to so many
voluntary tortures ?

The time was come, however, in which he should
proceed to acquit himself of the secular offices he
had undertaken in behalf of his friends and coun
trymen at Paris. He set out, therefore, attended to
the borders of the province by his brother and a
retinue ; but thence proceeded on foot, unattended,
and without purse, making his way first to Painpe-
luna. thence to Sanguessa, to Toledo and back to
Tudela — to each of which places the interests of
his friends called him ; — and then to Valencia, pur
posing there to get a passage to Genoa. But in
pursuing this route he did not fail to make inquiry
concerning his early associates, whom, years before,
he had left to the strength of their own resolves.
Most of them, he learned, had fallen away from
their profession, their religious ardor having soon
been exhausted. One of them, a Frenchman, had
secured his perseverance in virtue by entering a
monastery. Callistus was gone to India, in quest
of wealth. Cazeres had abandoned himself to a
life of ease and pleasure among his kindred. Ar-
tiaga, having pursued a course of ambition in the
church, had obtained a bishopric ; but had speedily
met an untimely end — poisoned by his own mis
take. Loyola, praying for the restoration of those
who survived, and for the souls of the departed,
would not spend his time in any endeavors to seek

118 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

them out, or in attempting their conversion. A
more promising course had now opened itself before
him, and he hastened onward, to make proof of it.
Loyola's friends — for friends he found at Valencia
— would fain have prevented his incurring the risks
of a voyage at a time when that terror of the Med
iterranean, Barbarossa, with his fleet galleys, held
the sea almost as his undisputed domain. The
saint, however, was not to be so turned from his
purpose ; — he embarked, encountered " the most
violent of all recorded tempests," and set foot on
the shores of Italy only to meet there new perils.
Thus it is that the margin of this eminent man's
history is, on every inch of it, decorated in the man
ner that has been thought to be the most appropri
ate to the life of so great a saint ; — " Atque tanta
maris incommoda, non sane levius terrestris itineris
discrimen excepit." That is to say — the illustrious
founder of the order of Jesuits must not be allowed
to pass from point to point of his course, with less
of epic accompaniment than befits the hero of an
Odyssey, or of an ^Eneid ! How refreshing, in the
perusal of such a man's personal history, would be
a little of the ordinary course of things ! How
gladly should one rest, here and there, content amid
those commonplace realities with which truth -is
ordinarily conversant ! How would attention be
quickened by an admixture of this — the common
place of real life, instead of that, than which nothing
is more wearisome — the commonplace of the mirac
ulous ! Romish writers too often want the good
taste and the soundness of judgment which would
teach them, when their subject furnishes them with

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. H9

the solid materials of moral and intellectual great
ness, to be therewith satisfied. It seems, with these
writers— one and all— as if they could never recog
nize a hero of their own— if they met him out of
his finery.

Of what magnitude Loyola's actual perils and
sufferings in travel were, we may safely form an
opinion, when we are assured by his friend, Gon-
salvo, that the following was regarded, by himself,
as the most extreme of any which it had been his
lot to encounter : these are the very words—" Atqtie
hie maximus fuit omnium laborum corporalium quos
imquam expertus est !" In his way from Genoa to
Bologna he travelled alone and in ignorance of the
road ; and thus it happened that he took a path
across the Apennines, which, though at the com
niencemcnt it appeared accessible, soon became
narrow and difficult, until at length it presented a
pass whence, as it seemed, he could not extricate
himself in either direction. A rough ledge of rock
was his only footing, and this impending over a
rapid stream, far below. Nothing could he do but
crawl forwards on hands and knees, catching at
each projecting point, and holding by any fibre
that hung from the crevices ; and thus it was that
he passed through « the greatest of all those bodily
labors which at any time he had encountered!"
Yet the destined trial of his patience was not com
plete ; for just as he was entering Bologna, his foot
slipped in crossing the bridge ; headlong he tumbled
into a stagnant ditch, and in emerging, covered
with mud and filth, heard himself greeted with
shouts of laughter by the crowd about the gates.

120 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

At Bologna, to its eternal disgrace, the founder
of the Jesuit order in vain asked alms from street
to street; not a farthing did he obtain ! Sick and
in destitution he at length betook himself to the
Spanish college in that city. (Why not resort
thither at the first ?) From Bologna, after a while,
he proceeded on his destined way toward Venice ;
where, as had been agreed, he was to meet his col
leagues from France. While awaiting there their
arrival, toward the close of the year 1535, he em
ployed himself in his customary manner, teaching
and preaching wherever opportunity presented it
self. Signal success attended these evangelic la
bors, and several persons of distinction were, at thin
time, won by him to a life of piety.

Among these converts at Venice, was a noble
Spaniard of Cordova named Hozez, who had taken
his bachelor's degree in theology, and had moreover
armed himself against the perils of the times by a
fixed hatred of the German novelties. Already he
had heard of Loyola as an eminent preacher, and
as a master in the spiritual life ; but the whisper
had reached him of his having come under suspi
cion of heresy once and again, and that this had
occurred as well in France as in Spain. Hozez,
therefore, approached this noted teacher with an
excited feeling of mingled admiration and distrust.
To protect himself against any lurking infection
of heresy, he carried about him, in his preliminary
interviews with his countryman, certain books of
piety, and summaries of orthodox doctrine, as stand
ards to which he might, in each instance of doubt,
appeal. He soon however found, or felt, that his

HIS VISIT TO ITAI.Y. 121

alarms were groundless, and his precautions un
called for. A genuine orthodoxy breathed itself
from the lips of his new friend ; and as to the
Spiritual Exercises, the .whole tenor of them was
in harmony with the doctrine and usage of the
Church. "An implicit submission to the decisions
of the Church is," said Ignatius to his noble disciple,
" a Christian's first duty. Nothing that has been
authorized by the Church is to be called in question.
Whatever she has approved we are not merely to
accept as true and good, for ourselves, but are to be
ready to defend with our utmost zeal and ability.
We are to conform ourselves to the ordinances of
our ecclesiastical superiors, even although their own
lives should not be as edifying as we might wish.
Never are we to indulge in invectives against such
dignitaries. As to the ancient Fathers of the
Church, it was their office principally to stir up de
vout affections in the minds of men : but it was
the office of the doctors of a later time, and es
pecially of Saint Thomas, to digest, definitely to
expound, and authoritatively to teach, the Christian
doctrine. It is therefore to the writings of these
great and holy men, and to those of the last men
tioned particularly, that an appeal is to be made on
points of belief; and it must be from these arsenals
that we are to draw our weapons, when called to
contend with heretics."

It was thus, and with many exhortations breath
ing the same spirit, that the Master succeeded in
thoroughly dispelling the misgivings of the disciple,
who, after a short period of uncertainty, surrendered
himself unreservedly to his guidance in. matters

122 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

both of belief and practice. This, and many simi
lar successes among persons of note at Venice, did
not fail to awaken, as heretofore, the jealousies and
alarms of ecclesiastical dignitaries. Loyola was
therefore cited anew to render an account of his
life and doctrine. " Was it true that he had been
burned in effigy in some towns of Spain, as well as
at Paris ?" Ag'ain, however, as on other occasions,
this most catholic of agitators found it easy to clear
himself of every suspicion of heterodoxy ; and he
obtained a decision so decisively in his favor as
served greatly to enhance the influence he already
possessed over the minds of his followers, and among
the people.

It was about the same time that he formed an
intimacy with some persons of importance, whose
knowledge of him, and whose opinion of his piety
and ability, had much effect afterwards in promot
ing the formation, and in facilitating the movements
of the Order, when it was to be publicly recognized.
Among these persons the most remarkable was the
noted Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV. This intimacy
moreover gave rise to the idea, at first generally
prevalent, that the Jesuits were of the order of
Theatines, to which Caraffa had attached himself.

It was in the early days of the year 1537, that
Loyola's companions — the Fathers of the Society,
arrived from Paris, at Venice, and there, in undi-
minished fervor of spirit, joyfully greeted their chief
and teacher.

They had taken their course through France,
Germany, and Switzerland, staff in hand, their
books of piety in knapsacks on their shoulders, each

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 123

with his chaplet of beads round his neck, as sign of
his profession, and most necessary in t;aversing
countries pervaded by heresy. As they went they
begged their bread. The three who were in priest's
orders administered the communion daily to their
companions, and the company diverted the toils and
sufferings of the journey by singing psalms, or by
pious discourse. War was raging on every side of
their route ; and — worse than this — Satan, trium
phant in the persons of Lutherans, and of the de
luded followers of the Swiss heresiarchs, beset their
way with perils, visible and invisible.

The nine companions, now joined by the late
convert, Hozez, and with Ignatius at their head,
constituted the Society at the moment when it was
re-organized at Venice. These distributed them
selves among the hospitals of the city, where they
gave their free services to the sick and poor. After
a time thus spent, and during which, it is probable,
the intention of the new order was more fully ex
pounded by Loyola to his companions than hereto
fore it had been, and the rules of the Society digest
ed and assented to, — it was felt that a decisive step
must be taken in furtherance of the work to which
they had dedicated their lives. Already the devo-
tedness of their behavior, their assiduity in labors
of charity, even the most humiliating and revolting,
as well as the singular energy and intelligence
which marked their public and private discourses,
had attracted universal attention. Persons of all
ranks flocked around them, in admiration of their
piety, and eager to profit by their advices and ex
hortations.

124 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Well they understood— and their chief especially
understood it— that this notoriety, and this high
repute, they could not long enjoy, unprotected as
they were, exempt from calumny, or even from ac
tive hostility. Undoubtedly a storm would soon
gather around them, and might burst upon their
heads. To prevent this anticipated mischief, and
at the same time to obtain, in behalf of the infant
society, the highest sanction, it was resolved that
they should present themselves before the sovereign
pontiff, Paul III., proffering to the apostolic see,
themselves, without conditions ; — their bodies, souls,
and utmost services, to be disposed of for the good
of the Church, in whatever manner should be judged
the most conducive to that end. Simply to obtain
the apostolic permission and benediction for their
proposed journey to Palestine, was the immediate
object of their suit at Rome.

It is noticeable that, on this critical and momen
tous occasion, Loyola declined to accompany his
colleagues — declined to show himself at Rome, as
chief or founder of the new society. He instructed
and sent forward his friends, while he himself re
mained at Venice, to await the issue of their mis
sion. The motives of this backwardness are not
conspicuous, or are not authentically known. Os
tensibly — but this could not be the true or principal
reason — Loyola stayed at Venice to make the ar
rangements requisite for the voyage to the East ;
but undoubtedly some one of the party could, as
well as the chief, have taken charge of a function
such as this. It is said that Loyola had lately be
come personally obnoxious to his early friend Ca-

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 125

raffa, created cardinal by Paul III., and who might
have opposed himself to the company, had it been
headed by him. Yet this band of suppliants com
manded at this time the zealous good offices of one
whose influence at the Court of Rome was second
perhaps to that of few : this was Peter Ortiz, a
Spanish ecclesiastic, who, at Paris, had formed an
intimacy with Loyola, and who held him in the
highest esteem. At this time he represented the
Emperor Charles, in behalf of his sister, Catherine
of Arragon, the validity of whose marriage he main
tained.

The most favorable impressions of the company,
and of several of the individuals composing it, were
conveyed by Ortiz to the pontiff ; and it was per
haps to this auspicious introduction that the Society
owed, in measure, the favors, so many and so sig
nal, which, in the lapse of years, it received from
the hands of this pope : not improbably, the Span
ish procurator intimated to him something concern
ing the rank and high connections of two or three
of those in whose behalf he thus interposed.

This accomplished pontiff — Alexander Farnese —
thorough man of the world as he was, and the as
sociate of scholars and philosophers, understood too
well on what foundations the papal power rested,
to discourage any who professed their readiness to
spend their lives in strengthening and extending
the basement of the Church. And at this particu
lar juncture, especially, there was no extravagance
of zeal, how much soever it might, amuse himself
or his table companions, which he would fail to
promote — even at the cost of a few crowns, and an

126 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

apostolic benediction — if it seemed adapted to the
purpose of lending aid in the doubtful conflict at
that time raging between the Church and its as
sailants in Northern Europe. The Fathers of the
Society were invited to take their part in those
learned discussions in listening to which his holi
ness was accustomed to amuse his leisure hours ;
and these conversations afforded them a very fa
vorable opportunity for giving proof of their accom
plishments and intelligence. Nothing better could
have been wished for by themselves ; and the pope
and his friends quickly understood that this band
could not be held in contempt on any ground except
that of their sincere religious belief, and of their
self-denying zeal. In learning, acuteness, and even
in wit, these simple souls were quite on a level with
the accomplished voluptuaries of the papal court.

In a word, their suit was granted — the benedic
tion they implored was bestowed — gold, which they
did not ask, \vas lavished upon them — dispensa
tions were given for the juniors to receive priests'
orders prematurely ; and all the license needed for
converting Turks and heretics — the wide world
over, was allowed them. It was no doubt with
much edification that the pope and his friends soon
afterwards learned that these men, as well born and
as well bred as themselves, had reserved so much
only of the money they had received as would be
required to pay their passage to the Holy Land ;
and that, leaving the surplus in the hands of those
who were to employ it for charitable purposes, they
had gone forth from Rome as destitute as when
they entered it ; and that they had actually begged

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 127

their bread in the streets as they were quitting the
city ! It is thus not unfrequently that the utter
folly of a sensual and atheistic course of life is set
in strong relief before us, when it happens to be
contrasted with some wild extravagance of zeal
which, how inordinate soever it may be, we must,
nevertheless, confess to be wise and good when
brought into such a point of comparison.

The Fathers, in three companies, made their way
back to Venice in the same plight in which they
came — hardly bestead and hungry. On rejoining
their master, he, and those of them who still were
laics, received priests' orders from the nuncio there.
They moreover renewed their solemn engagements
toward each other, and afresh dedicated themselves
to the service of God, of the Church, and of man
kind everywhere.

War still raged between the Venetians and the
Turks, nor was it possible to obtain, by any means,
a passage to the shores of Palestine. Nevertheless,
that there might be no ground hereafter for re
proaches of conscience, the party resolved to await
in the neighborhood of Venice the expiration of the
year which their vow embraced ; so that if, contrary
to all probability, the war should be brought to a
speedy conclusion, they might instantly re-assemble,
and snatch at any favorable opportunity for ac
complishing their original purpose.

Meanwhile, in this crowded and voluptuous city,
and in the surrounding territory, men so minded as
were these fathers could not want a field of labor.
They went forth, therefore, to their work, three and
three ; Loyola taking as his companions, as before,

128 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Lainez and Faber; and it is these who should be
• regarded as, in a strict sense, the authors of the
Jesuit Institute. It was at this time, no doubt, be
neath the bare shelter of a hovel's crazy roof, and
often in want of food, and worn with toil, as street
preachers, that these extraordinary men, throwing
into a common stock their individual gifts, digested,
in loving concert, the rules of the Society, so far as
it is constituted by written precepts ; arid more than
this — brought vividly before their own minds those
unwritten principles which, from the first, have been
to it a secret soul and mind— a code not written
upon paper, but deep cut upon the fleshy tablet of
every Jesuit's heart.

Loyola, Lainez, and Faber, quitting Venice, be
took themselves to the neighboring town, Vicenza.
In a neglected and miserable suburb of this place
they found a deserted building — open to the blasts
of heaven — open to any rude intruder ; for it had
neither door nor window ! This was the place of
their conclave, and their only home : in the most
sheltered corner of it they slept upon a bundle of
straw or stubble, collected by themselves. But here
the hubbub of the town was not heard ; and here
— or at least during the hours of darkness — the
solace of prayer and meditation might be enjoyed
without disturbance ; and here, at midnight, none
making them afraid, the soul-kindling psalm might
be recited, and the hymn, lifting the thoughts
toward the world of triumphant harmony, might
loudly be sung ! Happy inmates of this hovel —
happy, we say again, and say it with .emphasis,
after looking into the glittering palaces of Venice :

HIS ITINERANT LABORS. 129

happy its inmates ; and wise too — if man be im
mortal !

The plan adopted, after a preliminary season of
prayp.- was for two to go forth daily into the town,
there to ask alms and to exercise their evangelic
functions among the people, while one remained at
home — if home it might be called, to guard their
little stock of books and utensils, and to prepare food
for supper, if food were in store. It was Ignatius,
we are told, who most often took upon himself this
domestic charge ; and it is said that the reason for
his doing so — out of his turn — was his laboring un
der a complaint in the eyes, brought on by excessive
weeping ! an ambiguous explanation, we must think
it, of an ambiguous course of conduct.

Forty days having been spent in penitential exer
cises, and a colleague having joined them, the fathers
entered upon a course of labors the most arduous.
Not one of them possessed a fluent and colloquial
command of the Italian language — a language
which is so difficult an instrument in the hands of
those who are imperfectly acquainted with its re
finements. Forth they went, however, as street
preachers. A stone, at the corner of a house, or a
stool, borrowed from a shop, was pulpit enough.
The preacher, occupying some such position, waved
his bonnet over his head, and in a loud voice sum
moned the people to attend. Wan and wasted was
his countenance — his eyes deep sunken, his attire
worn, and in ill trim. At first mistaken for a quack,
the gathering crowd was soon subdued to quietness
and solemnity by the awe-inspiring tones of the
speaker's voice, and its attention fixed by the weight
6*

130 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

of the subject-matter of his discourse, by the inten
sity of his manner, by the fearful energy of his ges
ticulations, and by the majesty of that appeal to the
conscience, which those are best able to make, whose
thorough conviction of the truth and importance of
what they affirm is recommended to the hearer by
that dignity and self-possession which belongs to
men who are well educated and well bred.

A similar advantage — let it be called adventitious
and non-essential, and yet real — attached to the
open-air preachings of the founders of Methodism.
In this instance, however, it is not. a John or a
Samuel Wesley to whom we are listening, and yet
the story is substantially the same (as were the
topics). On the skirts of the crowd in the streets
and squares of Vicenza, and of the neighboring towns
and cities, there were usually seen some who came
up to mock the speaker and to disturb the congre
gation ; but who, after venting for a few minutes
their ribaldry and profane jests, were suddenly smit
ten by a word catching their unwilling ears. The
countenance falls — the straggler stands perplexed — •
pushes forward toward the speaker — listens breath
less — melts — and perhaps with a loud voice, inter
rupted by sobs, confesses himself conscience-smitten
and vanquished ! Such conquests not unfrequently
gladdened, we are told, the labors of these evan
gelists ; and it is quite credible that it was so ; for
similar successes have ever rewarded the labors of
apostolic preachers of every church, and of what
ever school in theology.

The Fathers, when not abroad, preaching and
teaching, were resorted to by many of these con-

HIS ITINERANT LABORS. 131

verts, to whom they gave sedulous attention. Some
brief hours of rest excepted, they employed them
selves in these labors early and late. Their de-
votedness, their cheerful endurance of privations,
their humility, fervor, and especially their well sus
tained personal behavior, produced an impression,
of the most powerful kind, upon persons of all
classes ; and they quickly became the objects of
general affection and reverence. In consequence
of this change in their favor, their personal comfort
was henceforward religiously attended to by devout
persons, so that instead of the fragments of mouldy
bread, which, for weeks, had constituted almost
their only fare, they were now regularly and copi
ously supplied with the best provisions. At the
same time, it is said, and we take it on the author
ity of Loyola's own narrations, that he was favored,
not merely with spiritual consolations of the most
peculiar kind, but with visions or visitations, super
natural, such as he had not been wont to experience
since the time of his retreat in the cavern at Man-
resa. A critical epoch in his personal history is now
before us ; and any one must feel it to be such who,
sincerely wishing to render justice to the founder of
Jesuitism, must yet reserve his faith in what is pro
fessedly supernatural, for narratives that stand quite
exempt from colorable suspicion,

CHAPTER VI.

LOYOLA'S ELECTION TO THE GENERALSHIP OF
THE SOCIETY.

THE eleven companions had, at this time, drawn
together at Vicenza, where they had made a greater
impression upon the popular mind than elsewhere,
and whence they had made excursions to the neigh
boring towns — to preach, and — although it does not
appear why this should have been necessary — to
beg.

The time had now nearly expired to which their
vow extended, in relation to Palestine ; no pros
pect, however, of their finding it practicable to
undertake the voyage had presented itself, in the
interval, or was now apparent. The Fathers there
fore would quickly find themselves released in con
science from that particular obligation, and might
hold themselves free — no doubt much to their in
ward satisfaction — to prosecute those more vast
schemes of spiritual agency which, lately, had been
opened to their view. Loyola himself, it is proba
ble, had willingly, and perhaps not very slowly, re
linquished a vague ambition to convert a world of
Mahometan misbelievers, in favor of that far better
defined, as well as more practicable, plan which the
Jesuit institute embodied, and which, while it did
indeed embrace the conversion of Turks and pagans,

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 133

held mainly to the purpose of erecting a ghostly
empire over the entire area of Christendom.

On this ground the Fathers deliberated at Vi-
cenza ; and it was here decided that the prelimi
nary step should forthwith be taken. This pre
liminary measure was, to make a new proffer of
themselves, and of their services, to the apostolic
see, which should be invited to accept, as an uncon
ditional oblation, the bodies and souls, the well-
being, and the energies of this band, to be disposed
of in the most absolute manner, and for the promo
tion and upholding of the authority of the church.

This time it was Loyola himself, with his chosen
colleagues, Faber and Lainez, that undertook the
mission to Rome ; while the eight were to disperse
themselves throughout northern Italy, and especially
to gain a footing, if they could, and to acquire in
fluence at those seats of learning, where the youth
of Italy were to be met with ; such as Padua, Fer-
rara, Bologna, Sienna, arid Vicenza. Surprising
effects resulted, it is said, from these labors ; but
we turn toward the three fathers, Ignatius, Lainez,
and Faber, who are now making their way on foot
to Rome.

If Loyola's course of secular study, and if his vari
ous engagements as evangelist, and as chief of a
society, had at all chilled his devotional ardor, or
had drawn his thoughts away from the unseen
world, this fervor, and this upward direction of the
mind, now returned to him in full force : we are
assured that, on this pilgrimage, and "through
favor of the Virgin," his days and nights were
passed in a sort of continuous ecstasy. As they

134 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

drew toward the city, and while upon the Sienna
road, he turned aside to a chapel, then in a ruinous
condition, and which he entered alone. Here ec
stasy became more ecstatic still ; and, in a trance,
he believed himself very distinctly to see Him whom,
as Holy Scripture affirms, " no man hath seen at
any time." By the side of this vision of the invisi
ble, appeared Jesus, bearing a huge cross. The
Father presents Ignatius to the Son, who utters the
words, so full of meaning, "I will be favorable to
you at Rome."

It is no agreeable task thus to compromise the
awful realities of religion, and thus to perplex the
distinctions which a religious mind wishes to observe
between truth and illusion ; yet it seems inevitable
to narrate that which comes before us, as an integral
and important portion of the history we have to do
with. And yet, incidents such as these, while they
will be very far from availing to bring us over as
converts to the system which they are supposed
supernaturally to authenticate, need not generate
any extreme revulsion of feeling in an opposite direc
tion. Good men, ill-trained, or trained under a
system which, to so great an extent, is factitious,
demand from us often, we do not say that which
an enlightened Christian charity does not include,
but a something which is logically distinguishable
from it ; we mean a philosophic habit of mind,
accustomed to deal with human nature, and with
its wonderful inconsistencies, on the broadest prin
ciples.

Some diversities of language present themselves
in the narratives that have come down to us of this

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 135

vision. In that which, perhaps, is worthy of the
most regard, the phraseology is such as to suggest
the belief that its exact meaning should not easily
be gathered from the words. Loyola had asked of
the Blessed Virgin — ut eum cum filio suo poneret ;
and during this trance this request, whatever it
might mean, was manifestly granted.*

From this vision, and from the memorable words
— Ego vobis Romse propitius ero, the Society may
be said to have taken its formal commencement, and
to have drawn its appellation. Henceforward it was
"the Society of Jesus;" — for its founder, introduced
to the Son of God by the Eternal Father, had been
orally assured of the divine favor — favor consequent
upon his present visit to Rome. Here, then, we have
exposed to our view the inner economy, or divine
machinery, of the Jesuit Institute. The Mother
of God is the primary mediatrix ; the Father, at her
intercession, obtains for the founder an auspicious
audience of the Son; and the Son authenticates the
use to be made of His name in this instance ; and
so it is that the inchoate order is to be— " The
Society of Jesus !"

An inquiry, to which, in fact, no certain reply
could be given, obtrudes itself upon the mind on an
occasion like this, namely, How far the infidelity
and atheism which pervaded Europe in the next
and the following century sprung directly out of
profanations such as this? Merely to narrate them,

* Ita animum suum mover! mutarique sensit, tamque manifesto
vidit, quod eum Deus Pater cum Christo Filio suo poneret, ut de
eo dubitare non auderet, quin eum Deus Pater cum Filio suo po
neret.

136 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and to do so in the briefest manner, does violence
to every genuine sentiment of piety. What must
have been the effect produced upon frivolous and
sceptical tempers, when, with sedulous art, such
things were put forward as solemn verities not to be
distinguished from the primary truths of religion,
and entitled to the same reverential regard in our
minds !

Loyola, although thus warranted, as he thought,
in assuming for his order so peculiar and exclusive
a designation, used a discreet reserve at the first,' in
bringing it forward, lest he should wound the self-
love of rival bodies, or seem to be challenging for
his company a superiority over other religious orders.
So much caution as this his past experience Would
naturally suggest to him ; and that he felt the need
of it is indicated by what he is reported to have
said as he entered Rome. Although the words so
recently pronounced still sounded in his ears —
Ego vobis Romse propitius ero, yet, as he set foot
within the city, he turned to his companions and
said, with a solemn significance of tone, "I see the
windows shut," — meaning that they should there
meet much opposition, and find occasion for the
exercise of prudence and of a patient endurance
of sufferings : — of prudence, not less than of
patience.

But while care was to be taken not to draw
toward themselves the envious or suspicious regards
of the religious orders, or of ecclesiastical potentates?
there was even a more urgent need of discretion
in avoiding those occasions of scandal which might
spring from their undertaking the cure of the souls

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 137

of the other sex. Into what jeopardy of their saintly
reputation had certain eminent men fallen in this
very manner ; and how narrowly had they escaped
the heaviest imputations ! The Fathers were not
to take upon themselves the office of confessors to
women — nisi essent admodum illustres. That the
risk must necessarily be less, or that there would
be none, in the instance of ladies of high rank, is
not conspicuously certain ; but if not, what were
those special motives which should warrant the
Fathers in incurring this peril in such cases ? Mere
Christian charity would undoubtedly impel a man
to meet danger for the welfare of the soul of a poor
sempstress, as readily as for that of a duchess, or
the mistress of a monarch. If therefore the peril
is to be braved in the one case which ought to be
evaded in the other, there must be present some
motive of which Christian charity knows nothing
So acutely alive was Loyola to the evils that might
spring to his order from this source, that we find

him at a later period not merely rebutting ladies

admodum illustres, but bearding the pope and the
cardinals, and glaringly contravening his own vow
of unconditional obedience to the vicar of Christ,
rather than give way to the solicitations of fair and
noble penitents.

Soon after the arrival of the three — Loyola,
Faber, and Lainez— at Rome, in the year 1537,
they obtained an audience of the pope, who wel
comed their return, and anew gave his sanction to
their endeavors. Faber and Lainez received ap
pointments as theological professors in the Gym
nasium ; while Loyola addressed himself wholly to

138 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the care of souls, and to the reform of abuses. To
several persons of distinction, and to some digni
taries of the Church, he administered the discipline
of the Spiritual Exercises— they, for this purpose,
withdrawing to solitudes in the neighborhood of
Rome, where they were daily conversed with and
instructed by himself. At the same time he labored
in hospitals, schools, and private houses, to induce
repentance and to cherish the languishing piety of
those who would listen to him. Among such, and
who fully surrendered their souls to his guidance,
were — the Spanish procurator, already mentioned
— Peter Ortiz, and Cardinal Gaspar Contarini, both
of whom were led by him into a course of fervent
devotion, in which they persisted, and who more
over continued to use their powerful influence in
favor of the infant society.

The pulpits of many of the churches in the sev
eral cities where the fathers had stationed them
selves, and some in Rome, had been opened to their
use, and the energy and the freshness of their
eloquence affected the popular mind in an extraor
dinary manner ; sometimes, indeed, they brought
upon themselves violent opposition ; but in more
frequent instances their zeal and patient assiduity
triumphing over prejudice, jealousy, ecclesiastical
inertness, and voluptuousness, the tide of feeling
set. in with this new impulse, and a commencement
was effectively made of that Catholic revival which
spread itself throughout southern Europe — turned
back the Reformation-wave^ — saved the papacy,
and secured for Christendom the still needed an-

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 139

tagonist influences of the Romish and of the Re~
formed systems of doctrine, worship, and polity.

At Rome, Loyola, by his personal exertions, ef
fected great reforms in liturgical services- -induced
a more frequent and more devout attention to the
sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist — es
tablished and promoted the catechetical instruction
of youth ; and, in a word, restored to Romanism
much of its vitality.

The author and mover of so much healthful
change did not escape the persecutions that are the
lot of reformers. Such trials Loyola encountered,
and he passed through them triumphantly ; — so we
are assured ; but in listening to the Jesuit writers,
when telling their own story, where the credit of
the order and the reputation of its founder are
deeply implicated, it is with reservation that we fol
low them.

So fearful a storm — yet a storm long before de
scried, it is said, by Loyola— fell suddenly upon him
and his colleagues, that it seemed as if the infant
society could by no means resist the impetuous tor
rent that assailed it. The populace, as well as per
sons in authority, suddenly gave heed to rumors the
most startling which came in at once from Spain,
from France, and from the north of Italy, and the
purport of which was to throw upon the Fathers
the most grievous imputations, affecting their per
sonal character as well as their doctrine. These
men were reported to be heretics, Lutherans in
disguise, seducers of youth, and men of flagitious
life.

The author or secret mover of this assault is said

140 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to have been a Piedmontese monk, of the Augus-
tinian order, himself a secret favorer of the Lutheran
heresy, and " a tool of Satan/' and who at last,
throwing off the mask, avowed himself a Lutheran.
This man, for the purpose of diverting from him
self the suspicions of which his mode of preaching
had made him the object at Rome, raised this out
cry against Loyola and his companions, affirming
of them slanderously and falsely what was quite
true as to himself.

The pope and trie court, having been for some
time absent from Rome, this disguised heresiarch
had seized the opportunity for gaining the ear of
the populace, by inveighing against the vices of
ecclesiastics, and insinuating opinions to which he
gave a color of truth by citations from scripture,
and the early fathers. Two of Loyola's colleagues,
Salmeron and Lainez, who, in their passage through
Germany, had become skilled in detecting Lutheran
pravity, were deputed to listen to this noisy preacher :
they did so, and reported that the audacious man
was, under some disguise of terms, broaching rank
Lutheranism in the very heart of Rome ! Loyola,
however, determined to treat the heresiarch courte
ously, and therefore sent him privately an admoni
tion to abstain from a course which occasioned so
much scandal, and which could not but afflict Cath
olic ears. The preacher took fire at this remon
strance, and openly attacked those who had dared
thus to rebuke him.

Thus attacked, Loyola and his colleagues, on
their side, loudly maintained the great points of
Catholic doctrine, impugned by this preacher, such

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 141

as the merit and necessity of good works — the va
lidity of religious vows, and the supreme authority
of the church ; and in consequence it became ex
tremely difficult on his part to ward off the im
putation of Lutheranism, or to make it appear
that he was anything else than a self-condemned
heretic. He however so far commanded the popu
lar mind that he maintained his reputation and his
influence, and actually succeeded in rendering his
accusors the objects of almost universal suspicion
or hatred. Their powerful friends forsook them —
all stood aloof — or all but a Spaniard, named Gar-
zonio, who, having lodged Loyola and some of his
companions under his roof, knew well their sound
ness in the faith, and their personal piety. Through
his timely intervention the cardinal-dean of the sa
cred college was induced to inform himself, by a
personal interview, of their doctrine and life.

This dignitary was satisfied, and more than sat
isfied, of the innocence and piety of the fathers.
Nevertheless Loyola, looking far forward, and know
ing well what detriment to his order might arise, in
remote quarters, from slanders not authoritatively
refuted and disallowed, demanded to be confronted
with his accusers before the ecclesiastical authori
ties. He would be content with no vague or irreg
ular expression of approval — he would accept no
half acquittal. He sought, and at length obtained,
an official exculpation in the amplest terms, with
an acknowledgment of his orthodoxy on the part
of the highest authority on earth, and this was
granted under circumstances that gave it universal
notoriety.

142 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

In court the principal witness was confounded by
proof, under his own hand, of the falseness of the
allegation he had advanced, and at the same time
testimonials from the highest quarters, in favor of
the Fathers, severally and individually, arrived op
portunely ; in a word, the Society, in this early
and signal instance, triumphed over its assailants ;
and thenceforward it, occupied a position the most
lofty and commanding in the view of the Catholic
world. Loyola and his colleagues saw the ruin of
their adversaries ; two of whom, falling into the
hands of the inquisitors, were burned as heretics.

The time was now come for effecting a perma
nent organization of the Society, and for installing
a chief at its head. With these purposes in view,
Loyola summoned his colleagues to Rome, from the
cities of Italy whese they were severally laboring.
The Fathers being assembled,* he commended to
them anew the proposal which they had already
accepted, but. which he seemed anxious to fix irrev
ocably upon their consciences, by often- repeated
challenges of the most solemn kind. To impart the
more solemnity to this repetition of their mutual
.engagements, and to preclude, by all means, the
possibility of retraction, he advised that several
days should be devoted to preliminary prayer and
fasting, during which season each should, with an
absolute surrender of himself to the will of God,
await passively the manifestation of that will.

* The meeting now spoken of appears to have taken place dur
ing Lent of the year 1538 ; but it was not until two years later that
the Society obtained a formal ecclesiastical recognition by the bull
of Paul III.

EARLY TIME OP THE SOCIETY. 143

" Heaven," said Loyola to his companions, " Heaven
has forbidden Palestine to our zeal ;— nevertheless
that zeal burns with increasing intensity, from day
to day. Should we not hence infer that God has
called us — not indeed to undertake the conversion
of one nation, or of a country, but of all the people,
and of all the kingdoms of the world ?"

Such was the founder's profession, and such the
limits of his ambition ! The spiritual mechanism
which he had devised, and which he was now put
ting in movement, intends nothing that is partial or
circumscribed ; its very purport is universality ; it is
absolutism carried out until it has embraced the
human family, and has brought every human spirit
into its toils.

But so small a band could hope for no success
that should be indicative of an ultimate triumph,
unless they would surrender themselves individually
to a common will, which should be, to each of them,
as the will of God, articulately pronounced. After
renewing therefore the vows of poverty, of chastity,
and of unconditional obedience to the pope, the
Fathers assented to the proposal that one of their
number should, by the suffrages of all, be constitu
ted the superior, or general of the order, and as such
be invested with an authority as absolute as it
was possible for man to exercise, or for men to
submit to ! Yet, to whose hands should be as
signed—and for life— this irresponsible power over
the bodies, souls, and understandings of his com
panions 1

It had not been until after a lengthened prepara
tion of fasting, prayer, and night-watching, that a

144 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

resolution so appalling had been formed. Yet it
was easier to consent to the proposal, abstractedly
placed before them, than to yield themselves to all
its undefined and irrevocable consequences when
the awful surrender of what is most precious to man
—his individuality— was to be made ; not to a chief
unnamed ; but to this or that one among them
selves. To whose hands could the ten consign the
irresponsible disposal of their souls and bodies?
They had, however, already advanced too far to re
cede : they had, as they believed, in humble imita
tion of Christ the Lord, offered themselves as a
living sacrifice to God— so far as concerned the body

by the vow of poverty, and the vow of chastity :

they had thus immolated the flesh, and had re
served to themselves nothing of worldly possessions,
nothing of earthly solaces ;— all had been laid upon
the altar : they had moreover professed their wil
lingness to deposit there their very souls. The vow
of unconditional obedience, as thus understood, was
a holocaust of the immortal well-being. Each now,
as an offering acceptable to God, was to pawn his
interest in time and eternity, putting the pledge into
the hands of one to be chosen by themselves. It
was debated whether this absolute power should be
conferred upon the holder of it for life, or for a term
of years only ; arid whether in the fullest sense it
should be without conditions, or whether it should
be limited by constitutional forms. At length, how
ever, the election of a general for life was assented
to ; and especially for this reason— and it is well to
note it— That the new society had been devised and
formed for the very purpose of carrying forward vast

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 145

designs, which must demand a long course of years
for their development and execution ; and that no
one who must look forward to the probable termina
tion of his generalship, at the expiration of a few
years, could be expected to undertake, or to prose
cute with energy, any such far-reaching projects.
On the contrary, he should be allowed to believe
that the limits of his life alone need be thought of
as bounding his holy ambition. Provisions were
however made, as we shall hereafter see, for holding
some sort of control over the individual to whom so
much power was to be intrusted. The actual elec
tion of Loyola to the generalship, did not formally
take place until after the time when the order had
received pontificial authentication. Meantime all
implicitly regarded him as their master ; from him
emanated the acts of the body ; and to him was as
signed the task — aided by Lainez — of preparing
what should be the constitutions of the society.

During the interval between the concerted organ
ization of the order, and the formal recognition of
Loyola as the general, he found several occasions
highly favorable for extending and for enhancing
his influence, as well among the common people, as
among ecclesiastical dignitaries. One such oppor
tunity was afforded, soon after the above-mentioned
exculpation of the Fathers, by the occurrence of a
famine, during an unusually severe winter. The
streets of Rome presented the spectacle of hundreds
of half-naked and starving wretches, who fruitlessly
implored aid, or who silently expired . unaided.
Loyola and his colleagues, themselves subsisting
from day to day on alms, felt often — we are told —
7

146 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the nip of hunger, yet they needed no incitement
which these scenes of woe did not spontaneously
supply. They were at once alive to the claims of
humanity, and to the requirements of Christian
duty. They begged for the perishing — took them
to such shelter as was at their command — carefully
and tenderly ministered to the sick— and withal,
used the advantage which these offices of kindness
afforded them, for purposes of religious instruction.
Hundreds, rescued from death through cold and
hunger, were thus brought to repentance on the
path which the church prescribes. A great impres
sion in favor of the Jesuit fathers was made upon all
classes by this course of conduct. In humanity,
self-denying assiduity, and Christian zeal, they had
immeasurably surpassed any who might have pre
tended rivalry with them.

It was now, therefore, that Loyola sought from
the pontiff that formal recognition which his per
sonal assurances of regard and approval seemed to
show he could not refuse. Paul III. was, however?
cautious in this instance, and seemed unwilling to
commit himself and the church, at this critical
moment, except so far as he knew himself to be
supported by the feeling and opinion of those of the
cardinals whom he most regarded. He referred
Loyola's petition to three of them. The first of
these was Barthelemi Guidiccioni, who had often
declared himself to be decisively opposed to the
multiplication of religious orders. The church, he
thought, had too many of these excrescences al
ready ; and instead of adding another to the num
ber, he would gladly have reduced them all to four

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 147

His two colleagues were easily induced to concur
with him in this opinion ; and thus it appeared as
if the infant society, notwithstanding the advances
it had lately made in securing the good opinion of
persons of high rank, as well as in winning popular
applause, was little likely to receive what was in
dispensable to its permanent establishment — a papal
bull in its favor.

Personally, however, the pope did not conceal his
cordial feeling toward Loyola and his companions :
he seems to have perceived clearly that these men,
resolute in their punctilious adherence to the doc
trine and ritual of the church, and committed by
the most solemn engagements to its service — deep-
purposed as they were, full of a well-governed en
ergy, resolute in the performance of the most ar
duous duties, and, moreover, highly accomplished
in secular and sacred learning, were the very in
struments which the church had need of in this
crisis of its fate. Northern Europe was irrecovera
bly lost — Germany and Switzerland were held to
Catholicism at points only ; while France and
northern Italy were listening to the seductions of
heresy. — Scarcely could it be said, even of Spain,
that it was clear of the same infection. The
church ought, then, at such a moment, to embrace
cordially, and by all means to favor, the efforts of
men like Loyola and his distinguished companions.

It was with this feeling that Paul III., while
held back by his advisers from the course he would
have adopted, went as far as he could in promoting
and extending the influence of the Society. At the
same moment application had been made, on the

148 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

part of several potentates, for the services of the
Father?, who had already gained a high reputation
at the courts near to which they had exercised theii
ministry. It was seen and understood by princes
that these were the men — and these almost alone—
to whom might be confided those arduous tasks
which the perils of the times continually presented :
none so well-furnished as these fathers — none so
self-denying and laborious — none so uncompromis
ing in the maintenance of their principles. They
were therefore despatched, in various directions, and
with the papal sanction, to undertake offices, more
or less spiritual, and in some instances purely secu
lar. It was thus that a commencement was made
in that course, which has thrown unlimited power
into the hands of the Society, and which again
has brought upon it suspicion, hatred, and reiterated
ruin.

But the most noted of these appointments was
that which, in sending, as by an accident, Francis
Xavier to India, detached from the Jesuit Society
the man who, had he remained at home, must have
imparted his own character to its constitutions, and
have guided its movements, and who probably would
have dislodged Loyola from the generalship, and
have held Lainez and Faber in a subordinate posi
tion. Not merely did Xavier's departure allow
Jesuitism to take its form from the hand of these
three, but it conferred upon the Society, from a very
early date, the incalculable advantage of that re
flected power and reputation which the Indian mis
sions secured for it. Xavier's apostleship in the
East, with its real and with its romantic and exag-

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 149

gerated glories, was a fund, upon which the Society
at home allowed itself to draw without limit. If it
be admitted that Xavier effected something real for
Christianity in pagan India, it may be affirmed that
he accomplished, at the same time, though indi
rectly, far more for Jesuitism throughout Europe.
This course of events, so signal in its consequences,
as favoring the development and rapid extension of
the Jesuit scheme throughout Christendom, and
which yet could not be attributed to any forethought
or machination 011 the part of Loyola, is well de
serving of a distinct notice.

The train of circumstances, as related and af
firmed by the Jesuit writers, excludes the supposi
tion of its taking its rise in any plot or intention.
John III. of Portugal — a religious prince — had long
entertained the project of stretching the empire of
the church over those regions which his valiant and
enterprising people were subjecting to his secular
sway. In modern phraseology, he piously desired
to consecrate his military triumphs in the East, by
spreading the gospel among the subjugated heathen.
His royal wish and intention had become known to
Loyola's friend Govea, who wrote to him from Paris
on the subject. This letter was as a spark at contact
with which Loyola's zeal burst forth in a flame. He
replied, however, that as he and his companions had
now solemnly surrendered themselves to the abso
lute and unconditional disposal of the vicar of Christ,
they could attempt nothing spontaneously. It is
easy to imagine how speedily this declaration, con
veyed to Govea, would produce its effect, would
come round to its destination, and would assume the

150 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

form of a pontifical injunction, addressed to Loyola,
to despatch some of the Fathers to the court of
John, there to await the pleasure of so religious a
prince. Six missionaries had been asked for. Lo
yola, with the consent of the pope, assigned two — -
Rodriquez and Bobadilla — to his service. The lat
ter however falling ill — so it is affirmed — Francis
Xavier was appointed in this place. Xavier, it is
said, leaped for joy when summoned, at a moment,
to set out toward Portugal, with commission — to
convert India to the Christian faith ! A few hours
sufficed for his preparations : by noon of the next
day he had sewed the tatters of his attire with his
own hand, had packed his bundle, had bid adieu to
his friends, and was forward on the road to Lisbon.
Upon this desperate enterprise he set forward with
his eye steadily fixed upon objects far more remote
and more dazzling than the sunny plains of Hin-
dostan. The immeasurable difficulty of his mis
sion was to him its excitement ; its dangers bright
ened in his view into martyrdom — its toils were to
be his ease — its privations his solace, and despair
the aliment of his hope. But at this initial point
of his course we must take leave of Francis Xavier
— the prince of missionaries. Bobadilla, with Lo
yola's consent, remained in Portugal, where his zeal
found scope enough.

At length, but it does not appear in what man
ner this change of opinion had been brought about,
Cardinal Guidicciarii professed himself favorable to
the suit of Loyola ; probably an exhanced convic
tion that the Romish hierarchy was encountering a
peril which called for extraordinary measures, and

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 151

that the new order was likely to meet the occasion,
had prevailed over considerations less urgent and
of a more general kind. This opponent gained,
no obstacle remained to be overcome. On the 3rd
of October, 1540 (or 27th September), was issued
the bull which gave ecclesiastical existence to the
new order, under the name of The Company of
Jesus. At the first the Society was forbidden to ad
mit more than sixty professed members ; but, three
years later, another bull removed entirely this re
striction.

The time was now come when the decisive step
must be taken which should enable the new insti
tute to. realize its intention — which should render
Jesuitism — Jesuitism indeed. This was the elec
tion of a chief individually, who thenceforward
should be absolute lord of the bodies and souls, the
will and well-being, of all the members. Until this
election should be made and ratified, the society
was a project only ; it would then become a dread
reality.

Those of the Fathers who could leave their func
tions at foreign courts — and these were three only —
were summoned to Rome ; those who could not
attend there, sent forward their votes. But in what
manner are we to deal with the account that is
presented to us of that which took place on this
occasion? How is it to be made to consist either
with the straightforwardness and simplicity of inten
tion that are the characteristics of great and noble
natures ; or how with those maxims of guileless-
ness which Christianity so much approves? The
problem admits of only a partial arid unsatisfactory

152 IGNATIUS LOYOLA

solution ; nor can we advance even so far as this,
unless we make a very large allowance in favor of
Loyola, personally, on the ground of the ill-influ
ence of the system within which he had received his
moral and religious training. A principle of facti-
tiousness is deep-seated in the Romish scheme of
sanctity. It is a falseness which it inherited from
the church-asceticism of an earlier age. Whenever
extravagance and exaggeration come to he generally
practised, and to be universally admired, pretension
and spuriousness are sure to follow, and to become
a plague-spot upon the garment of sanctity. Un
der such a system, when time has fixed upon it its
characteristics, while there will always be. many
truly sincere and honest men, yet nothing will exist
that is in itself thoroughly sincere and honest.
Loyola, in the instance before us, conducted him
self after the fashion of his church : this must be
his apology.

It was he, unquestionably, who had conceived the
primary idea of the society. He was author of
the book which constitutes its germ and law — the
Spiritual Exercises : he had been principal in di
gesting the constitutions, or actual code, of the
Society. It was he, individually, whom the others
had always regarded as their leader and teacher.
His influence, personally, was the cement which
held the parts in union. It was Loyola who, while
his colleagues dispersed themselves throughout Eu
rope, remained at Rome, there to manage the com
mon interests of all, and to carry forward those
negotiations with the papal court which were of
vital importance, and of the highest difficulty. In

HIS ELECTION. J.53

a word, it was he who had convoked this meeting
to elect a chief, and who asked the proxies of the
absent. Are wTe then to believe that this bold spirit
— this far-seeing mind, this astute, inventive, and
politic Ignatius, born to rule other minds, and able
always to subjugate his own will — that this con
triver of a despotism, after having carried the prin
ciple of unconditional obedience. — after having won
the consent of his companions to the proposal that
their master should be their master for life — are we
to believe that he had never imagined it as probable,
much less wished, that the choice of his compeers
should fall upon himself, or that he had peremptorily
resolved, in such a case, to reject the proffered sov
ereignty ? Surely those writers, the champions of
the Society, use us cruelly who demand that we
should believe so much as this.

Le Jay, Brouet, Lainez, and Loyola were those
who personally appeared on this occasion. The
absent members sent their votes in sealed letters.
Three days having been passed in prayer and si
lence, the four assembled on the fourth day, when
the votes were ascertained. All but Loyola's own
were in his favor ; he voted for the one who should
carry the majority of votes.

Loyola, we are told, was in an equal degree dis
tressed arid amazed in discovering what was the
mind of his colleagues. He, indeed, to be general
of the Society of Jesus ! — how strange and prepos
terous a supposition ! Positively he could think of
no such thing. What a life had he led before his
conversion ! How abounding in weaknesses had
been his course since ! How could he aspire to rule

]54 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

others, who so poorly could rule himself ! Days ot
prayer must yet be devoted to the purpose of im
ploring the divine aid, in directing the minds of all
toward one who should indeed be qualified for so
arduous an office. At the end of this term Loyola
was a second time elected, and again refused to com
ply with the wishes of his friends. He would
barely admit their importunities ; they could scarce
ly bring themselves to listen to his contrary reas
ons. Time passed on, and there seemed a danger
lest the Society should go adrift upon the rocks,
even in its first attempt to reach deep water. At
length Loyola agreed to submit himself to the
direction of his confessor. He might thus, perhaps,
find it possible to thrust himself through his scruples
by the loophole of passive obedience, for he already
held himself bound to comply with the injunctions
of his spiritual guide, be they what they might.

This good man, therefore — a Father Theodosius
of the communion of Minor Brethren — is constitu
ted arbiter of the destinies of the Society of Jesus.
To his ear Loyola confides all the reasons, irresisti
ble as they were, which forbade his compliance with
the will of his friends. The confessor listens pa
tiently to the long argument, but sets the whole of
it at nought. In a word, he declares that Loyola,
in declining the proffered generalship, is fighting
against God. Further resistance whould have been
a flagrant impiety, and he, in making himself mas
ter of the bodies and souls — the mind and con
science — of all who should yield themselves to his
hand, contrives, by an easy artifice, to preserve a
spurious modesty from violation.

HIS ELECTION. 155

The installation of the general was carried for
ward in a course of services held in the seven prin
cipal churches of Rome, and with extraordinary
solemnity in the church of St. Paul, without the
city, April 23, 1541. On this occasion, the vows of
perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience were re
newed before the altar of the Virgin, where Loyola
administered the communion to his brethren, they
having vowed absolute obedience to him, and he
the same to the pope.

That this formal inauguration of the Society took
place before the altar of the Virgin, and was sanc
tioned by a solemn appeal to her as its patron di
vinity, is a circumstance that might easily pass un
noticed. The same appeal had frequently been
made on previous occasions — in truth, upon every
signal occasion. Jesuitism is " our lady's institute,"
and with the worship of the Virgin the order is
inextricably connected. In various instances Lo
yola proved himself to be gifted with a far-reaching
sagacity ; but it does not appear that he had allowed
himself to anticipate a time when the maintenance
throughout Europe of a superstition so recent in
its rise, and so palpably idolatrous, should no longer
be possible. It is not easy to imagine what shift
the Society will have recourse to when, in all
countries that are ploughed by the railway — the foe
of every local absurdity — men in very shame, and
the priest not less eager to do so than the layman,
shall remove from churches and from the corners
of streets the trinket-bedizened doll to which, so
long as it stands there, they must pay a degrading
obeisance.

CHAPTER VII.

LOYOLA commenced his administration as Gen
eral of the Company of Jesus, by establishing the
most exact order in its house— the conventual house,
which was now to be the centre of government to
the Society. He himself excelled as an economist.
This faculty and accomplishment has been a char
acteristic of most founders of orders, and chiefs of
sects. In this preliminary and important labor he
was assisted by an able coadjutor — Peter Codasius,
an ecclesiastic, and an officer of the papal court,
who, having become the disciple of Loyola, had
abandoned his preferments and appointments, and,
devoting himself entirely to the duties with which
he charged himself, as administrator of the secular
interests of the Society, acted as almoner, purveyor,
and steward of the house of residence. It was,
moreover, by his means, that the first church was
erected whicli the Society could call its own, and
which was solemnly dedicated to the Virgin.

In carrying forward those domestic arrangements
which seemed essential to the welfare of the com
munity, Loyola not merely allotted to each his
duty, but he set an example of humility and obedi
ence by sometimes personally discharging menial
offices in the kitchen. The General himself might,

HIS GOVERNMENT OF THE SOCIETY. 157

at times, be seen busy and reeking in the scullion's
place ! In a word, he showed to all what was his un
derstanding of the doctrine he taught — that a per
fect charity includes all virtues, and especially the
virtue of absolute submissiveness, and an indiffer
ence to humiliations the most extreme. Love resents
nothing but pride, impatience, or selfishness. Peace
therefore reigned in a house thus governed; the
General exhibiting consummate skill in the treat
ment of all tempers, and mingling firmness and
force with suavity and affection in a manner which
no hearts could resist.

Meantime those offices which were more purely
spiritual occupied the greater part of his time. Pri
vately he was resorted to by multitudes, seeking his
aid as a skilful physician of souls ; and often were
difficult cases of obduracy and of moral depravity
brought to him by parents and guardians ; more
over, he was very frequently called upon to restore
to soundness in the faith those who had become
tainted with the epidemic heresies of the times.

As a preacher also he labored incessantly, and
with great effect, and this notwithstanding his de
ficiencies as an orator, and the extreme rudeness of
his style and articulation in using the Italian lan
guage. But in a mode more direct than that of
nicely modulated tones, or of phrases classically
correct, Loyola brought the souls of his hearers into
close contact with his own. Perhaps even when
the general purport or drift only of his discourse
was understood by them — when his foreign accent,
and his utterly mischosen idioms hung as a veil be
tween the preacher's mind and the minds of the

158 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

hearers, the effulgence of soul beamed with scarcely
diminished brightness through that medium, and
conveyed heaven's fire from the one heart to the
hearts of all. Thus perhaps it had been with him
whose " bodily presence was weak and his speech
contemptible." Loyola's hearers, if they but half
caught the logic of his periods, caught entire the
solemn intensity of his persuasion that the " things
unseen and eternal" are real and true. Preaching
produces like effects as often as it is prompted by a
like full conviction.

This " methodist" of Catholicism at Rome and in
the sixteenth century might have been found fault
with as the author of irregularities precisely similar
to those which have marked the course of like-
minded preachers in modern times, and among our
selves. But the Church of Rome has never been
jealous of disorders that did not seem to threaten
her own authority. Protestant churches, on the
contrary, have lost ground among the people, and
have forgone their prerogatives, by indulging a fas
tidious repugnance toward whatever revolted an
aristocratic taste in matters of religion. Protestant
churches have grudged salvation when dealt out to
the people in their own style. Rome has been far
less nice.

When Loyola commenced his sermon, a breath
less silence reigned through the church ; as he went
on there was perceptible a pressure toward the pul
pit ; sighs soon became audible on every side ; then
these sighs swelled into sobs, and sobs into groans.
Some fell on the pavement as if lifeless. Once and
again an obdurate offender — hitherto obdurate —

PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY. 159

pushed forward, threw himself at the feet of the
preacher as he left the pulpit, and with convulsive
struggles made a loud confession of his crimes.
Men from every class of society, and not exclusive
of dignified ecclesiastics, were numbered among
these conquests of preaching in earnest.

The pontifical restriction above referred to, and
which had confined the Society to sixty members,
having been withdrawn, through Loyola's importu
nities, accessions were made to it perpetually.
Moreover the fame of these Fathers spread as in a
moment throughout Catholic Europe. It was said
everywhere that, whatever might be the function
with which these devoted men charged themselves
— and whether spiritual or secular, they were al
ways successful — they failed in nothing ; they went
beyond their engagements ; they were trustworthy
agents ; they were prudent and safe advisers ; they
taught children with the happiest effect ; they in
structed princes for peace or war. At an early
time, therefore, after the formal establishment of
the order, schools, colleges, the consciences of states
men and the closets of kings, were placed at the
disposal of the General. Deputations reached Rome
from remote quarters, the object of which was to
obtain the aid of one or more of the Fathers in
some service of peculiar difficulty.

These requisitions, which the General could ac
cede to only with a sort of parsimony that enhanced
the value of his compliance, opened an easy road
to the Society in whichsoever direction he might
wish it to advance. Houses of the ordelf were estab
lished in different countries — in fact wherever it

160 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

was thought advantageous to gain a footing for it
Every such house became, of course, a centre of
extensive influence, and drew toward itself a multi
tude of candidates for membership, among whom
the General, constantly and exactly informed as he
was of the qualifications and dispositions of every
aspirant, might freely select those whom he deemed
the most likely to serve the Society in its own man
ner, and on its own terms. It was in this mode,
and by this means chiefly that the Jesuit order
secured its early and unexampled successes.

Houses of the Order of Jesus had, within a few
years, been founded and placed upon a firm basis
in different parts of Spain, Portugal, France, Ger
many, Italy, Sicily, and India ; and in a short time
the General held in his hand the wires of a machine
moving with little friction and no noise, and which
stretched itself nearly over the entire area then
covered by the Romish Church, and at some points
it extended beyond that limit. It was a machine
that was new in its contrivance, fresh as to its ma
terials, close in its fittings, nowhere worn, and which
was kept in motion by the volitions of a single mind.
Loyola's utmost ambition now seemed likely to be
realized ; his power over the spirits of men was
rapidly surpassing and supplanting that of the head
of the church : if Pharaoh still sat on the throne, it
was Joseph who administered the affairs of the
kingdom. We are compelled to seek within the
Jesuit Institute itself for the causes of that failure
which has belied the omens of so auspicious a com
mencement.

Provincials having been appointed in all Catholic

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 161

countries, through whom the General kept himself
conscious of whatever concerned the interests of the
Church and the Order throughout Europe — for lhes6
provincials employed their emissaries in all direc
tions — he himself, in virtue of his position as head
of a religious order, took a seat in ecclesiastical
council chambers, and was always cognizant of
whatever was propounded, or decreed, with a view
to the spread and maintenance of the Romish
faith.

Within the city itself Loyola not merely labored
as a preacher and pastor, but promoted various re
forms, municipal and ecclesiastical, and founded
several charitable institutions. These endeavors to
do good exhibit, with a sort of alternation, the pre-
dominence, in his mind, of an eager overweening
zeal, and of great natural sagacity. His early
course had shown this same reaction — this oscilla
tion, produced between the vehemence of his emo
tions on the one side, and the clearness and energy
of his understanding on the other.

The almost universal practice of dissolute per
sons in deferring confession to the last hour, when
the sincerity of repentance could not be proved,
gave him great uneasiness ; and with the hope of
inducing such persons to " repent" a little earlier, he
obtained leave to revive and to enforce an obsolete
decretal, forbidding the attendance of a physician
until the priest had duly confessed and absolved
the sick. The fatal consequences, and indeed the
uttei impracticability, of such a regulation soon be
came manifest, and some relaxation of so barbarous
a law was called for and permitted. Twice the

162 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

sick might be visited, unconfessed — but not a third
time.

At his instance also regulations were adopted,
favoring, as he imagined, what has been called—
"the conversion of the Jews," very many of whom
were at that time resident at Rome. The means
resorted to were as efficacious as such means have
usually proved, in other hands, when employed with
the same charitable intention, of leaving a side door
ajar into the church from the synagogue.

In each instance in which we find Loyola enact
ing regulations, or founding establishments for the
benefit of women, there is apparent in the course
he takes a sound discretion, and a peculiar firmness
of purpose. These instances exhibit a fixed unity
of principle, and we may safely infer from the facts
that he had deliberately forecast the occasions that
were likely to present themselves in carrying for
ward his great design ; and that he had digested,
with due care, the measures which he should adopt
as often as such instances occurred. He had played
his part as a man of the world long enough to rid
himself of those illusions which might have misled
a cell-bred religious legislator. Loyola well knew
mankind, and he knew womankind ; and again he
knew mankind in this relationship : his conduct in
all instances therewith connected shows, not merely
(as we should undoubtedly assume) that the holy
Ignatius was master always of the gallant Loyola,
but what is far more— that the politic and clear
sighted Loyola had gained an habitual ascendency
over Ignatius -the empassioned devotee.

Houses of refuge had hitherto been open foi

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 163

female penitents only on the condition that those
who abandoned a vicious course should renounce,
not vice merely, but the world, and should thence
forward bury themselves in a convent. Loyola, with
a wise forbearance, opened the doors of the peniten
tiary which he established to all who desired to re
form their lives, with liberty of return to the world
and to their families.

There wras yet a point which, in his view, touched
vitally the interests, the influence, and the perpetuity
of his order, and it was brought before him in an
urgent manner by circumstances occurring not long
after the time of his formal entrance upon his func
tions as General of the Society.

At the time of his departure from Spain to pursue
his studies at Paris, he had accepted a purse, as we
have already said, from a noble matron of Barcelo
na, named Isabel Rosella. This lady had reached
mature age at that time, but was perhaps of ardent
temperament; and she had continued to regard her
saintly countryman with feelings of profound admi
ration. At the time of which we are now speak
ing, and which must have been nearly twenty years
after the period of her early acquaintance with him,
the new order, spoken of with wonder throughout
Europe, had. as was natural, attracted peculiar re
gard in Spain. The lady Rosella was not likely
to listen with indifference to reports concerning the
sanctity and far-spreading influence of the man
whom she had befriended. Her resolution was
quickly formed, and as speedily followed up, to re
pair to Rome. She was accompanied, or was
joined there by two pious ladies, who determined

164 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to risk 'themselves with her in this religious adven
tare.

It was with grateful courtesy that Loyola wel
comed the lady to whose benevolence he had been
so much indebted in years gone by ; but she now
asked in return more than he could, in conscience,
grant. At first, indeed, he yielded so far to her im
portunities as to undertake in some sort the spiritual
oversight of the three ladies who had resolved to re
tire from the world, and to devote themselves to a
religious life in immediate connection with the So
ciety. Very quickly, however, he repented of this
compliance. The control and direction of three
women gave him, he said, more trouble than the
government of a society which had now spread
itself over the surface of Europe. Daily, and often
times in a day, was he summoned by these ladies
to resolve their scruples, to listen to their petulant
complaints ; sometimes even to dissipate their mu
tual jealousies, and to give some sort of reply to a
hundred inane questions.

But this was not all. He could not doubt that,
instead of a devout three, a not less devout nine
would ere long make similar demands upon his
skill and time, and that this nine would draw to
itself other nines, until a spacious house would not
hold them all. Besides, what might take place at
Rome would surely and soon be imitated in all
places where the Society had established itself;
and, as an inevitable consequence, its members,
diverted from the great purposes to which they had
dedicated themselves, would become— what so many
of the existing orders had become— trifle rs at the

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 165

best, or causes of scandal in the eyes of the world,
But the lady Rosella was not to be easily shaken
off. The General declared that he found himself
already overburdened with cares : it was impossible
for him to pay due attention to the spiritual welfare
of herself and her companions : his health too was
infirm, and his mind oppressed. She would listen
to no excuses ; she had come to Rome for the very
purpose of spending her remaining years in religious
exercises, under his auspices ; she reminded him of
her claims upon his gratitude ; — hard lot of the
woman who, whatever may be her suit, is driven
to have recourse to this plea, fatal as it is to her
wishes when so employed! Loyola showed him
self inflexible : the lady therefore turned away from
him to meditate other means of accomplishing her
purpose. She had connections at the papal court,
and through these channels she at length won the
ear of the sovereign pontiff, and so far prevailed
with him as to induce him to challenge the Gen
eral's professed implicit obedience, and he was com
manded to undertake the spiritual care of Rosella
and her companions. He meekly complied for the
moment ; but Ignatius Loyola was not the man to
be so easily thrown out of the course which he had
chosen for himself.

He first armed himself for the occasion by fasting
and prayer ; and then, with the humblest and most
fervent entreaties, approached the foot of the pope ;
there he so pleaded his cause, and so represented
the ruinous consequences that impended over the
Society, as to convince the Holy Father that the
injunction which he had just issued must be with-

166 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

drawn. It was withdrawn, and the Jesuits were
formally excused from the obligation to direct or to
govern communities of women, while still free to
take upon themselves the function of confessors in
individual cases, and where the reasons for so doing
should be sufficient. The Society attributes its
preservation and its successes, in no small degree,
to the exemption thus obtained from a not merely
burdensome, but perilous line of duty.

A new and more serious danger soon presented
itself, and one from which Loyola's utmost exer
tions hardly availed to rescue the Society. This
arose from the proffer of high ecclesiastical digni
ties to the more noted of the Fathers, on the part
of several Catholic princes. The clear-sighted
General instantly perceived that, if once one of his
colleagues was allowed to accept a bishopric, and if
such preferment was seen to be the reward of emi
nent ability, of high accomplishments, and of ex
alted piety, he should no longer hold in his hand
the hearts, or command the services, of any in whose
bosoms there lingered a spark of worldly ambition.
In a word, the Society would instantly come to be
regarded by those within it, and by those without
it, as a broad road-way to mitres and emoluments ;
and then it must quickly cease, not merely to fulfil
its high intention, but must cease even to subserve
this lower purpose. With the whole energy of his
soul, therefore, did Loyola oppose himself to the
first instance of an offered episcopate.

Yet it was no easy matter to resist the bursting
open of a door at which kings and their courts were
thundering to gain admission. The more intelli-

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 167

gent of the Catholic princes had at length fully con
vinced themselves that the perils of the times de
manded a new system to be pursued in the bestow-
ment of church preferments. Men of another stamp
than heretofore must now be sought for and secured
wherever they might be found, and promoted to the
highest dignities, notwithstanding the murmurs and
envy of disappointed sycophants. It was a season
in which, whatever was unreal, inert, inept, must be
set aside, and the vacancy filled by those whose
qualities and accomplishments the mass of the peo
ple would accept as the fit accompaniments of high
rank in the church. Lutheranism and Calvinism
must be refuted and withstood, not so much by the
stern measures with which the holy office charged
itself, as by the natural and kindly influence of
the learning, assiduity, disinterestedness, self-de
nial, and irreproachable personal virtue of the men
who were to represent and sustain the Romish faith
and worship. But to find such men in the bosom
of the Church, at that time, was in the extremest
degree difficult. The new order of Jesuits alone
possessed such men, and it was within its pale only
that they could be met with. Several of the Fathers
had already established themselves in the high re
gard of the princes with whom they had to do.

The first instance in which this difficulty pre
sented itself was that which occurred when Ferdi
nand, king of the Romans, offered the bishopric of
Trieste to Claude le Jay. Now therefore was to be
decided the question whether henceforward men of
mixed motives or of sinister intentions should be
tempted to simulate Jesuit-like devotedness. as a

1(58 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

means of reaching their selfish ends, and whether
the Fathers who had won for themselves an un
bounded influence over the mass of the people, as
preachers of Christian heroism, and by practising the
contempt of ease, honor, and wealth, should forfeit
all, as in a moment, by showing that themselves,
whenever they could do so, were willing enough to
take a seat among princes, where they might fare
sumptuously every day. Loyola instantly resolved
that this question should be determined in his own
manner. Yet all were against him— kings, cardi
nals, the pope himself, along with every subordinate
of the papal court— all— save his colleagues, if in
deed they were, all of them, thoroughly of his mind.
He was borne forward, however, not merely by the
natural force of a will of extraordinary tenacity,
but by a clear, undisturbed, intellectual grasp of the
simple idea of a purely spiritual and universal mon
archy. This idea he had pursued from almost the
first steps of his religious course ; — he had at length
overtaken it ; — he had fully made it his own; — he
had considered and matured whatever bore upon
the realization of it, and, in reliance upon the di
vine aid, he now proposed to carry it safe in his
arms through these new perils.

Le Jay had resolutely refused the proffered dig
nity ; but Ferdinand, giving little heed to what he
perhaps regarded as an assumed reluctance, ap
pealed to the pope, urging his cause with arguments
which appeared to be of irresistible force. The
pope yielded to these persuasions, and the cardinals
unanimously gave their approval of Le Jay's elec
tion td the bishopric, — some not unwilling to find

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 169

an occasion for doing king Ferdinand a pleasure,
others influenced by the obvious and legitimate rea
sons that a man so eminent should be placed in a
position where, for the interests of the Church, the
highest qualifications were called for. Some, per
haps, who had never been cordially affected toward
the new order, saw as clearly as did the General,
what would be the effect upon its interests of the
proposed elevation of one of the Society, and there
fore desired, in this indirect but effectual manner,
to bring about its ruin.

Loyola now felt that his mighty scheme had
reached a moment when its fate must be decided ;
and he saw that all influences were against him.
He sought an interview with his holiness, and
spread before him those reasons which in fact were
valid, and which should at once have been yielded
to, if indeed it was intended to perpetuate, for the
good of the Church at large, the inestimable bene
fits which the Jesuits were seen to be securing for
it. It could not be doubted that the spirit of this
institution would be at once broken up, and the
whole intensity of its energies relaxed, if only in a
single instance a bishopric were accepted, as a re
ward of his merits, by a Jesuit Father. The pope,
however, continued to be unmoved by these represen
tations, either because he was incapable of perceiv
ing the truth and importance of them, or because
he was not in a position to thwart the vehemently-
urged wishes of Ferdinand.

In this emergency the General took the course
which the confessors of princes are likely to take,
as often as their necessities may seem to require.
8

170 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

He applied himself to Margaret of Austria, Duchess
of Parma, who had already shown favor to the
Society, and had named Loyola as her confessor.
By her intervention some delay in effecting- the in
vestiture of Le Jay was obtained, and the General
employed the interval of time in urging his reasons
upon Ferdinand. This prince was at length con
vinced that, to persist, would be unwise ; abandon
ing his project, the court of Rome yielded of course,
and thus a peril the most extreme was avoided.
Solemn thanksgivings were offered by the Society
on this signal occasion.

To affirm that this abnegation of ambition, in its
more ordinary forms, was regarded by Loyola and
his colleagues as the means necessary for giving
scope to an ambition — extraordinary and unbound
ed, would be an easy mode of laying open the mo
tives of his earnestness on this occasion. It may
be thought that he might cheaply spurn bishoprics
for himself, and for his followers, while contriving,
for their benefit, and for his own, a despotism that
should grasp the world ! Such an explication of
the facts may seem obvious and natural, and it
would readily be accepted by those, on the one
hand, who wish by all means to disparage Jesuit
ism, and its author ; and, on the other, by persons
of sardonic temperament, whose pleasure it is to
mock at human nature. Meantime those who ex
amine Loyola's character more calmly and atten
tively will be slow to accept any such supposition.
His master-motive was not of the k ind to which the
epithet ambition can with propriety be applied. A
great idea had possessed itself of his mind : he pur-

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 171

sued it with a consistent and vehement intensity ; —
he rejected whatever he felt to be of incongruous
quality : he discerned, at a glance, every adverse
influence, and turned it aside : — all was harmony
and unison in his conception of the Jesuit Institute ;
ho\v then could he tolerate or accept wThat he felt
to be dissonant, or knew to be destructive ? It was
not therefore a cloaked ambition, if the word is to
carry its ordinary meaning, that impelled Loyola to
refuse ecclesiastical dignities. He did so that he
might hold his principle intact.

It was about the same time that the General de
voted himself to the task of digesting anew the
constitutions of the Society. These constitutions,
forming as they do, its professed code, demand a
more exact attention than can be given them while
pursuing the personal history of their author. It
was a principle with him — and who must not ap
prove it ?— on every arduous occasion to exert his
natural ability of mind and body with all possible
energy, as if no divine aid or guidance were to be
looked for; and then, having done so, and while
thus employed, to seek that aid and guidance with
a simple fervor, and an absolute reliance, as if
human faculties of intelligence and power were
wholly inapplicable to the work in hand. It was
in this spirit, and in adherence to this rule, that he
now once again undertook to revise the laws of the
Society, and to append to them those explicatory
notes which form a running commentary upon the
text. In the calm exercise of his natural good
sense he fiist considered every point, weighing the
reasons that presented themselves in favor of each

172 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

enactment, and the contrary ; and at length, and
not until after days, or weeks of deliberation, he
permitted himself to reach a conditional conclusion.
For, even when this was done, a half only of the
process had been gone through with which he
deemed necessary, before the matter in question
could be dismissed as finally determined. This
after-process was altogether devotional. With fer
vent prayer and fasting, and through the entreated
intercession of the Virgin, he sought that illumina
tion which should enable him to reconsider what he
had done, as it appeared when seen in the light of
eternal truth. When in that light the labors of
natural reason stood approved, they were accepted
as good and genuine. Each article of the constitu
tions was then solemnly laid upon the altar, and
presented to the Divine Majesty, along with the
tremendous sacrifice of the mass. How sure should
those be that they are making an appeal to heaven
which heaven approves, when they intend to affix
heaven's seal to the product of their own minds !
Loyola did not permit himself for a moment to
doubt that each of the constitutions of the order of
Jesus had been divinely authenticated !

Jesuit establishments were now rapidly forming
in the principal cities of Catholic Europe, those of
France excepted, where the new order, being of
Spanish origin, and regarded as intended covertly
to promote designs which wrere not purely religious,
was held in little esteem. Moreover, the uncom
promising subserviency of the Society to the court
of Rome, would not be a recommendation in the
eyes of the French people or clergy. Besides, the

PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY. 173

German and Swiss reformation, even where its
principles were professedly rejected, had, in a silent
manner, wrought itself into the convictions of the
more thoughtful portion of the people, and had
created a feeling quite at variance with that which
animated the members of the Jesuit order.

Individuals indeed there were, of the French na
tion, who had caught the Jesuit feeling, and who
had eagerly placed themselves at the disposal of the
General. Among these William Postel was sig
nalized by his extraordinary accomplishments, his
various learning, and the extravagances of his after
course. For a moment he had been attracted by
the fresh energy that distinguished the Society ;
but Jesuitism could have no lasting charms for a
man whose individuality was so strongly marked,
and whose words and actions must be always his
own. Both parties soon convinced themselves, and
each other, that there could be no agreement be
tween them. He was quickly expelled the Society
which -had too hastily admitted him; itself, per
haps, at this early period, too eager to secure talents
of all kinds, and not fully understanding how to
apply its own first principle to particular instances
— That it, could avail itself of none of those energies
of the intellectual or moral world which, in their
very nature, must take their spring from the mind
and heart of the individual man. Jesuitism has
produced so very few men who have commended
themselves to the cordial regards of mankind at
large, because it represses, or exclude;-?, or destroys,
that pure spontaneousness — that clearly expressed
individuality, apart from which the individual man

174 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

can never draw to himself the affectionate admira
tion of his fellows.

Called upon by Paul III. to select two of the So
ciety to repair to the Council of Trent, as theo
logians, attendant upon the pope's legates, he fixed
upon Lainez and Sahneron,* both of them young
men, but eminently gifted for such a service, and
who had each of them, in his sphere of labor, be
come a skilled combatant in the controversies of the
times. In the instructions which the General ad
dressed to these delegates, were included, not merely,
as we should naturally suppose, exhortations to
modesty of deportment, and an adherence to truth
and charity in what they might advance in their
places, but an admonition not to neglect, while
giving due attendance in the council, those labors
of Christian benevolence to which their profession
bound them. They were to frequent the hospitals
of the city, to teach the young, and to preach re
pentance among the common people. It was thus
that, while discharging a high function tending to
innate them with self-importance, they might hope
to maintain a due humility, and an evangelic fer
vor. If this fervor were chilled, and this humble
ness of mind damaged or lost, no service they might
render in the council, as accomplished theologians,
could be regarded by themselves with any satisfac
tion, or would be productive of lasting good effects.
It was with a lively pleasure that the General re
ceived reports from time to time, not merely of the
able conduct of the three Fathers in the council, but

* The name of Claude le Jay appears in the list of those present
He attended as theologian for the Bishop of Augsberg.

PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY. 175

of their adherence to the course of conduct he had
prescribed to them out of it : they labored with un
abated assiduity among the sick, the poor, the ig
norant ; and themselves subsisted upon the alms
which they meekly asked, from day to day, of the
charitable.

As to the course they were to pursue in the coun
cil, and especially in relation to opinions broached
there by eminent persons, and sustained by weighty
arguments, by citations from the fathers, and by
passages of Holy Scripture, Loyola enjoined upon
them, in most peremptory terms, an exact ad
herence to the decisions of the Church, as already
understood. Strong reasons— nay, reasons irresist
ibly strong, although they may make an opinion
probable, do not make it Catholic ; and, therefore,
do not avail to recommend it, in any degree, to our
approval or acceptance. No admission, therefore,
should be made, even of the most indirect kind,
which might seem to indicate a leaning toward any
euch opinion.

It was about the same time that preparations
were made for establishing Jesuit colleges, in differ
ent countries, for the purposes of general education.
The system pursued throughout in these colleges
or universities, was in the most decisive sense relig
ious ; that is to say, religion as understood by the
Jesuit order, was assumed to be the legitimate end
of secular education, and was therefore, in the most
sovereign manner, to regulate, as well the choice ot
studies, as the modes of instruction. The interior
discipline of the college, and every usage, was
strictly in harmony with the requirements of the

176 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

most highly toned piety ;- -piety, according to the
notions, practices, and feeling of the " Society." It
belongs, however, to the history of Jesuitism, not
to our subject, to pursue this copious subject, and
to trace the effects of the Jesuit system of education
upon the mind of Europe, as developed in the
following century. "Go, my brethren," said the
General to those whom he sent forth to preside over
the lately established colleges, " go and kindle in
all bosoms that fire which Jesus Christ came to
light up upon earth." It was not the lamp of hu
man learning, not the torch of science merely, that
he would have them carry forth; but a heaven-de
scended illumination and warmth. Such, no doubt,
was Loyola's sincere intention.

Before despatching, to their several posts, those
who had been selected as superiors of colleges, or
as professors in particular departments, the General
demanded of each a written promise of passive
obedience in whatever related to their employments,
to the sphere of their labors, or to the government
of others. Those about to sail for Sicily declared
that, at the bidding of their father and master, who
to them was as God, they would as readily sail for
India as for Sicily ; or would go elsewhere. If now
destined to teach philosophy, in any of its highest
departments, they would, at a sign from him, charge
themselves with menial offices in the house ; or,
although their natural taste and talent might in
cline them to one branch of knowledge, they would
addict themselves, at his wish, to any other. All
things ought to be indifferent to those who had
already immolated their all, and had renounced

HIS PRINCIPLES OF GOVKRNMMNT. 177

every personal wish. The labors of the Jesuits, as
teachers, belong to the history of the Society ; not
to our present subject.

A profound policy, as well as a strict adherence
to his professed principles, manifests itself in the
course pursued by Loyola on difficult occasions.
Bobadilla had, with too little reserve, and too much
heat, opposed himself to the will of the emperor in
the affair of the interim. He had, in consequence,
been driven from the imperial dominions, and had
returned to Rome. As to the ground taken by this
Father, the General could not but approve it ; yet
Bobadilla should have shown more deference to the
will and authority of " a prince." He was not re
ceived therefore on his return with approval, and
was compelled to lodge himself elsewhere than in
the house of the order.

Yet notwithstanding this concession to secular
authority, the known displeasure of the emperor
woke up the animosity of some who had long re
pressed their feeling toward the new order. Many
such there were, and especially among the Domin
icans. A Spanish monk of this order, named
Melchior Cano, inveighed against the Jesuits, as
the ministers of Antichrist. Their unmonastic
habit, the free access they had to persons of rank,
and the part they played in secular affairs, afforded
ground enough for such imputations ; and it was
not long before the fickle multitude was brought to
join in the outcry of execration against men whom,
just before, they had reverenced as divinities. The
Society, however, had by this time too firmly en
trenched itself within the munitions of the Church
8*

178 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to be overthrown so easily, and it quickly regained
its position in Spain. In this, and in several anal
ogous instances, it afforded evidence which allows
us to affirm with confidence that, except from some
fault of its own, or some vice deep-seated in its con
stitution, Jesuitism could never have come, as it
so early did, under the reprobation of Catholic
princes, and of the Romish Church itself.

Loyola's steady adherence to the principle of his
institute, and his vigorous good sense, were shown
when one of the Fathers, Andrew Oviedo, principal
of the Jesuit college at Gandia, fascinated, by the
charms of hermit life, asked permission to vacate
his charge, and to bury himself for some years in
the wilderness. The pleas by which this request
were sustained appeared to be good : the General,
however, refuted and disallowed them all ; and in
the end convinced Oviedo that he ought to deny
himself in this instance, and that his personal de
sire of higher attainments in sanctity was itself a
temptation. It is true we may, through the infirm
ity that attaches to human nature, fall into errors,
or even commit sins, amid the distractions of a pub
lic course ; but we must not attach an excessive
importance to small delinquencies, which are inci
dental, not premeditated ; nor are we by any means
to withdraw" ourselves from works of charity on the
ground of the personal damage that may thence
happen to accrue to us. Noble it is, and Christian-
like, to sacrifice, not merely our repose and our in
dividual comfort, but even our real welfare (within
certain limits) to the salvation of souls.

Tt was in this manner that Loyola diffused among

HIS PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT. 179

his associates that energetic temper and those wider
principles of action which then were almost new to
the Church, and to which he had given a definite
expression. He carried these rules of conduct home
in all instances without respect of persons ; or if, in
any case, the rank of the convert exerted any in
fluence at all over the behavior of the General, it
was when those considerations to which men are
wont to pay a profound regard were wittingly set
at nought by him.

That illustrious convert and " great saint," Fran
cis Borgia, whose story should form a history by
itself, had already merited a cordial reception into
the Society when he came to present himself as a
candidate for admission. There was good room
for Loyola to persuade himself, and room also for
the world to believe, that the noble personage to
whom he opened his arms with such alacrity, was
regarded as an eminent saint, rather than as a
grandee of Spain, and a mighty patron of the So
ciety at the imperial court. Like most of those
who, in the Romish communion, have distinguished
themselves by their piety and their self-denying
virtues, Borgia sighed for the hermit's cell. His
duchess had lately died, and he, after despoiling
himself of all which the world had given him — •
fortune and rank — and having, as one dead while
living, assigned to his children their shares of his
estate, he would gladly have believed himself free
in conscience to relinquish all further concernment
with things seen and temporal : he would have
made his cell his sepulchre.

Loyola would grant to his noble convert no such

180 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

license to " live unto himself." The influence which
Borgia actually possessed, and which he might with
so much advantage exert in future for the advan
tage of the Society, was not to be forgone. More
over, Borgia had given evidence of peculiar ability
and discretion in the conduct of affairs, and might,
on every account, be thought of as likely to come
into that high position which, in fact, he afterwards
occupied.* He yielded to the advice and injunctions
of his spiritual father and superior; and devoted him
self with a sustained assiduity to the duties assigned
to him, for the " greater glory of God, and the good
of souls." It was not, however, until the peremp
tory commands of the General had stopped his
course, that he relaxed the austerities and remitted
the sanguinary inflictions of his daily discipline.
" God has given us," said the master to the disciple,
" a body as well as a soul, both to be employed in
His service, and we shall have to give an account
to Him of the one gift, as well as of the other." It
was in like manner that he restrained the misdi
rected fervors of several of his colleagues ; it was
thus that he imbued them with principles essentially
differing from those upon which the existing relig
ious orders had been framed ; and it was thus that
he slowly moulded anew the spirits of all, bring
ing them into conformity with a scheme, which, as
it had found no model in the past, has hitherto had
no peer.

If only these principles be admitted as sound,
and if we can grant this scheme to be itself legiti-

* Borgia succeeded Lainez as (third) general of the order, in tho
year 1565, and governed it until his death, in 1572.

HIS PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT. 181

mate, then the bold consistency with which genera]
rules were applied to particular cases, and the per
fect harmony thence resulting, are entitled to admi
ration. It was of a piece with the Jesuit scheme
that the sciences and polite literature should be cul
tivated wTith all possible assiduity in the colleges of
the Society ; but it was not of a piece with it, and
therefore not by any means allowable, that the spirit
of advancement or of enterprise in philosophy should
be encouraged, or that innovations, even in the most
trivial matters, or where improvement was mani
fest, should be accepted. Everything was to be
taken up in its then actual state, and was to be laid
down, when done with, in the same state. Jesuit
ism presented the most determined aspect of oppo
sition to the temper of the times, which was then,
in so effective a manner, pushing discovery forward
in all directions.

And yet, at the same time, a clearly developed
and practical good sense governed those instructions
which Loyola issued for carrying forward his scheme
of education within its iron-bound circle. Well he
understood wrhat his personal experience had so
effectively taught him, as to the natural influence
o£ a college course, in chilling the spirit of devotion,
and in substituting for the melting fervors and ec-
stacies of the spring-time of piety, a frame of mind
that is dry, chilled, and impoverished. He met this
discouragement, in the instance of those whom he
found to be laboring under it, with advice which we
m;ist grant to be free from exaggeration and extra v-
agauce. It was in substance to this effect : — Here
tofore you have waited upon God in the way of

182 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

meditation and of spiritual enjoyment; but now
you are to do the same in the path of labor and
study. With a right intention, lessons in phi
losophy will become to you exercises of piety ; a
problem thoroughly mastered, will be as a mass
celebrated. Once it was visions and ecstacies ; but
now it is rules of grammar or logic that are to en
gage your minds.

The General had now, that is to say, in the year
1550, borne the burden of the Society nine years ;
and this period of excessive labor, and of varied so
licitude, had materially abated his natural strength.
He sighed for repose, and it may easily be believed,
his request to be allowed to resign his office was
thoroughly sincere. No such perplexing problem
as that which presented itself when, in the first in
stance, he sought to evade the sovereign authority,
attaches to his conduct at this after time. He had
fully tasted whatever there may be of sweetness in
the possession and exercise of absolute and far-ex
tended power ; and he had known what, to one so
sincerely conscientious, must be the often-recurring
paroxysm of anxiety that waits beside the chair of
those who sway sceptres. Besides, if we correctly
think of Loyola's constitution of mind, personal
ambition, in the ordinary sense of the word, was
far from being his ruling passion. His idol was a
vast abstract idea — a beautiful conception of spirit
ual domination, which should at length supplant all
other dominations, and ensure peace and order on
earth. He had now lived to see his idea not merely
brought into actual existence, and become potent
among things potent, but to see it spreading itself

HIS PROFFERED RESIGNATION. 183

out on all sides, rapidly, toward its utmost boun
dary. Perhaps the very success which had so much
surprised himself, and had so far exceeded his own
sober hopes, inclined him now to step down from
his pinnacle, and to turn away his eye, while yet
the sun shone upon the prospect, and before any
ominous shadows might fall athwart it.

Loyola, in fact, addressed an earnest petitionary
letter to the senior Fathers, conjuring them to ac
cept his resignation of the generalship. Among
those who were thus addressed it is said that one,
in amiable simplicity, professed to think that, when
the General, whose every word was law, solemnly
declared himself incompetent to govern the Society,
he ought to be believed ! All beside were of a differ
ent opinion, and all but the guileless Oviedo were
peremptory in their determination not to yield to
their superior's prayer in this instance : none were
willing to incur, until it should be inevitable, the
risks of an election, the issue of wrhich could not be
foreseen. In the end he submitted himself to the
will of his colleagues, assenting to their decision
that he should retain his authority so long as God
should listen to their prayers for his life. It is af
firmed, however, that this disappointment brought
upon him an illness that seemed likely to give him
the release which his friends denied him, from the
toils and cares of government.

He however regained his accustomed health, and
found full occupation, first, in revising anew the
code of the Society — the constitutions, which were
again submitted to the judgment and approval of
the Fathers ; and, next, in meeting and evading

184 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

that hostility which the order was now drawing
upon itself from various quarters. In France es
pecially those jealousies and suspicions which it had
excited at the outset were spreading more widely,
and had assumed a form of settled opposition. Not
even the powerful support of the Guises, although
it availed something at court, was sufficient to over
come the repugnance of the clergy, or of the par
liament. It was furtively, or by connivance only,
that the Jesuits maintained a house of their order
at Clermont.

The vigilance and sagacity of Loyola, moreover,
were constantly employed in detecting and rebut
ting the assaults made upon the religious principles
of his spiritual children, by the indefatigable and
insidious " heresiarchs" of Switzerland, France, and
Germany. These are accused by the Jesuit writers
of attempting to tamper with the fidelity of some
inexperienced members of the Society, in modes
well suited to their purpose — the perversion and de
struction of souls. Again, on the side of the Cath
olic world, his utmost endeavors were incessantly
needed — now in shielding his establishments from
the assaults of haughty ecclesiastics, whose influ
ence had been put in peril by the zeal and ability of
the Jesuits ; and now in warding off from the heads
of some of his distinguished colleagues the fatal
glories of a cardinal's hat. The noble Borgia might,
if he had so chosen, have compensated himself for
the resignation of a dukedom, by accepting a dig
nity that would have placed in his way the highest
seat of power on earth. In this instance, however,
the dissuasive interference of the General was not

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 185

needed ; for "Father Francis," late Duke of Gandia,
proved that his first relinquishment of worldly splen
dor had sprung from motives that had gained su
premacy in his soul, and which could be dislodged
by nothing wrhich this transitory state can confer.
What is it to be duke, or cardinal, or pope, to one
who, in steady earnestness of purpose, is " laying
up for himself treasure in heaven ?"

It might have been foreseen by any one ac
quainted with Loyola's character, and with the
spirit and intention of the Jesuit Institute, that he
would admit of no union or blending of his order
with any other religious body. Some proposals of
this sort bad been made at a time when the Society
might have thought itself strengthened by alliances
with existing communities. Chiefs less clear
sighted, and less firm of purpose, would probably
have yielded themselves to such offers. Not so
Loyola ; even while the Society was passing through
its period of precarious infancy, much less at a time
when it had possessed itself of an extent of influ
ence effectively greater than that of all other mo
nastic bodies put together. Loyola perfectly un
derstood, in its application to his own proceedings,
the meaning of the inspired apophthegm — " Men
do not put new wine into old bottles" — and there
fore a brief and courteous reply brought at once to
a conclusion the treaty set on foot by the Arch
bishop of Genoa, with the view of bringing about a
union of the Barnabites and Jesuits.

Although dignities might not be accepted by
Jesuits, functions inseparable from high distinction
at courts were not to be declined. Loyola, it is

186 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

manifest, had contemplated, from the first, that in
terference of his order with mundane affairs, which
has always been its characteristic. Jesuitism was
constructed on this very supposition. One of the
Fathers, Gonzalez, having attracted the notice and
secured the favor of the King of Portugal, John III.,
had been named by him as his confessor : a mis
taken modesty, however, impelled this Father to
withdraw himself from this post of honor. But the
General, wholly disallowing the refusal, peremp
torily overruled it. A Jesuit, he said, should ever
hold himself ready to promote the good of others,
whether they be beggars or princes, and should turn
aside from no office of charity, whether called to
minister in hospitals, in galleys, in cottages, or in
palaces. Jesuits were not to be men of the cloister,
who might seclude themselves for their own benefit
and individual enjoyment ; but should stand ready
to fulfil their mission with equal alacrity in all
quarters, and among all conditions of men. In
such instances Loyola adhered consistently to his
principle, while on the one hand he rejected mitres
and cardinals' hats, and on the other gladly ac
cepted, for his followers, the most influential em
ployments in the closets of kings.

A parallel instance exhibits at once that thorough
submission of the individual will on which the in
stitute is based, and the features of that meek-
toned despotism which knew how to secure its
ends in all cases. Lainez, one of the earliest and
most able of Loyola's colleagues, had been ap
pointed Provincial of Italy, at the time of the sus
pension of the Council of Trent, in which he had

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 187

greatly distinguished himself by his learning, elo
quence, and discretion. This Father, however,
having spent his best years in arduous and labori
ous services, now desired, instead of promotion, a
period of seclusion, in which he might care for his
own soul, and live unnoticed, in communion with
God. But his friend, into whose hands he had
consigned his body and his soul, would admit of no
such evasion ; he would listen to no reasons of a
personal kind, which were incompatible with the
general good. " Tell me," says the General to his
friend, " tell me what punishment you are willing
to undergo as expiation of your fault in thus
having wished to urge a plea dictated by a regard
to your particular welfare."

Lainez not merely yielded implicitly to the will
of his superior in this matter, but professed his read
iness to undergo the most extreme humiliations,
and to perform every wonted penance ; — he would
be kitchenman ; he would teach the rudiments of
grammar to boys ; he would beg his way to Rome ;
or do anything else which should be enjoined him
as his punishment. The General, however, was
content with this submission : lie had brought his

O

refractory friend upon his knees ; and, instead of
imposing unseemly penances upon a man so highly
regarded by all, he commanded him, in expiation
of his offence, to compose a summary of Catholic
Theology fit to be employed in controversy with
heretics.

A rigid and punctilious discipline he enforced in
the colleges of the order, as necessary to preclude
that tendency to insensible and unnoticed declen-

188 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

sion and decay which attaches to all human insti
tutions, and which has actually effected the ruin of
so many. If a great principle be violated, or a
fundamental rule be broken in upon, the mischief
ensuing soon declares itself, and means are at once
used for restoring what has so been overthrown. But
a minute regulation is infringed without noise : the
point is yielded— it is lost, and in its train follow
other matters, each seemingly of small importance,
and yet together constituting the fence and bul
wark of the entire system.

An occasion presented itself, in the instance of
the Portuguese Jesuit college, for acting upon these
principles. Rodriquez, one of the most distin
guished of the Society, had, during twelve years,
governed the college with great ability ; but yet in
a mode not sufficiently rigid. Symptoms had ap
peared there of that liberty of the understanding
which the Jesuit institute does not favor, as well
as too much license in manners ; and these depart
ures from system had so much alarmed the vigi
lance of the General, that he resolved to withdraw
the too indulgent superior from his office. More
over, Rodriquez had attached those under his care
to himself in a manner which Loyola deemed to
be incompatible with perfect allegiance to himself.
He felt his power, as general, to be put in some jeop
ardy by the warmth of that affection of which the
superior had become the object. Rodriquez, there
fore, was appointed to the province of Arragon,
notwithstanding that national antipathy which ren
ders always a Portuguese most unacceptable to
Spaniards ; at the same time, and for the purpose,

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 189

as it seems, of breaking in upon this prejudice, Mi
ron, a Spaniard, was to succeed Rodriquez in Port
ugal. This obnoxious course involved consequen
ces that had not at first been foreseen. The king
and the court of Portugal stoutly resisted the remo
val of Rodriquez, while the youth of the college
warmly protested that they would abandon their
profession sooner than yield obedience to any one
who should come in his place. This double oppo
sition, however, the General at length overcame by
the alternate employment of persuasive and per
emptory letters. But when the provincial came
into office, he indiscreetly set about the restoration
of discipline in so stern and uncompromising a
manner, that an open revolt against his authority-
seemed to be threatened. At length, and when the
ever-judicious counsels of Loyola had been listened
to by the successor of Rodriquez, the spirit of the
novices, and of others, suddenly flew off in an op
posite direction, carrying many of them away into
dangerous extravagances of devotion. Thus it was
that the establishments of the Society in Portugal,
loosened from their steadfastness, appeared to be
swaying from side to side, like a vessel that rolls
upon the billows without rudder or sail, and in a
manner not merely perilous to itself, but likely to
produce an ill effect within the Jesuit establish
ments of Spain also.

At one moment the General, filled with alarms
by the prospect of these disorders, had resolved to
attempt personally the repression of them. But
the possible failure of his direct interposition would
involve dangers still more serious, and might lead

190 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to the overthrow at once of his mighty enterprise-
He took therefore another course, and at the insti
gation, or, we might say, under the inspiration, of
motives the most urgent, he collected and condensed
his every thought, combining all in an epistle which,
within the compass of a few pages, embodies Jesuit
ism, and reveals it. The epistle on " The Virtue
of Obedience," addressed to the Jesuits of Portugal,
has been the key-stone of the structure: it stands
without a parallel in the volume of religious litera
ture ; and it deserves the most careful analysis on
the part of whoever would understand Jesuitism.
This epistle, first despatched to Portugal, and then
to Spain, was quickly sent forth into all the world,
and became, and continues to be, a canonical in
strument with the Society, universally.

It is the lot of men who hold steadily to some
great principle of action to be charged with glaring
inconsistencies by those who cannot grasp any such
abstraction. It was thus with Loyola frequently.
At one time we find him on his knees before the
pope, fervently supplicating his interposition to
screen some Jesuit head from an impending
mitre ! then he rebukes a father whose modesty
would have prevented his accepting an office of far
more amplitude and importance than any episco
pate 5 and again he consents to the proposal of the
king of Portugal, who looked to the Society for men
whom he might establish in Abyssinia as patriarch
and as bishops. But he well considered, that, while
the mitres of Europe were fraught with allurements
that might kindle worldly ambition among the >-'a-
thers, and thus fatally .damage the Society, an

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 191

Ethiopian mitre was not unlikely to be displaced
by a martyrs crown ; or, if not, precarious revenues,
incessant labors, and extreme perils, would undoubt
edly attach to the dignity in such a sphere, and
therefore it might safely be offered to members of
(he Society.

On one occasion of a misunderstanding between
Charles V. and the pope, the Jesuits became impli
cated in the suspicion of having prompted those
measures on the part of the emperor which so much
irritated the pontiff. Loyola himself at the time
labored under a severe indisposition, which pre
vented his offering any explanation: the ill-feeling,
therefore, of the court and cardinals against the
Society went on increasing from day to day un
checked. But at the earliest moment of his con
valescence he hastened to the Vatican ; and while
yet scarcely capable of speaking upon affairs of im
portance, he succeeded, not merely in rebutting the
charges that had been brought against the Span
ish Jesuits, in the instance in question, but com
pletely turned the tide of pontifical favor, as before,
toward the Society ! Loyola possessed, in a high
degree, that rare faculty which gives a man a thor
ough and instantaneous intuition of the views and
feelings of another, and thus allows him to gain a
lodgement for himself, as it were, within that
other's bosom — thence to plead his cause. In deal
ing with persons in authority be vanquished them
by holding tenaciously to his one purpose, while by
unresisting humiliation he seemed to yield every
thing.

This personal talent, which, in a series of instan-

192 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ces, had enabled the General to steer his vessel
safely through perilous straits, and had secured for
him the favor of popes against cardinals and prin
ces, signalized itself on the accession of the declared
enemy of the Society — Cardinal Caraffa.

During the short month of the pontificate of
Marcellus II., that pope had given the General rea
son to believe that the Society would bask always
in his favor : this sunshine, however, was but for a
moment ; and every one believed that his successor,
Paul IV., would deal with the order in a stern and
summary manner. Some time before he had en
deavored to interpose in behalf of his countrymen,
a Neapolitan, whose son, at a tender age, had been
induced (if not seduced) to profess himself a Jesuit.
The father (and the mother too, urging her rights
with loud laments) claimed his son at the hand of
the inexorable General ; the cardinal, at the in
stance of the parents, commanded him to restore
the youth to them. Loyola, it is said, understand
ing better the precepts and principles of " the
gospel," resolutely turned a deaf ear to the outcries
of " flesh and blood." In fact,, he easily persuaded
the pope to reverse the order of the cardinal ; and
nothing but sighs and submission were left to the
bereaved parents.

This affront was supposed still to be rankling in
the bosom of the Neapolitan cardinal at the mo
ment of his election, and few doubted that, now at
length, the order of Jesuits would find their influ
ence with pontiffs at an end. Loyola himself en
tertained no such desponding apprehensions. He
had received an inward assurance that the head of

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 193

the church would still smile upon the company of
Jesus ; nor was he proved to be mistaken by the
event. Paul, at an early time, summoned Loyola
into his presence, and at once treated him with un
wonted distinction ; but he would fain have taken
a step indicative of favor, in the world's esteem, the
very thought of which, as in former and similar in
stances, filled the soul of the General with dismay.
The pope loudly declared that Lainez must now
take his seat in the college of cardinals ! " If in
deed it must be so," said the General, " the world
shall at least see in what spirit the Society accepts
ecclesiastical honors."

But on this occasion, whether or not Paul might
secretly wish *to effect the promotion of Lainez for
the very reason which impelled Loyola to resist it
— both clearly forecasting its fatal consequences to
the order — whether or not Caraffa were quite sin
cere, Loyola, and his friend Lainez too, proved
themselves to be so. Not less heartily for himself
than did his master for him, he sickened at the
thought of this dignity. The entreaties of the one,
and the protestations of the other, at length took
their effect upon the mind of the pope ; and the hat
was destined for some less recusant, if not more
worthy pate. The Society celebrated its deliver
ance on this occasion in solemn services of thanks
giving ; and Loyola, when he lavished the expres
sions of his gratitude at the foot of the pontiff, felt
and found that, if no individual Jesuit had risen to
a seat of power, the Society had gained a far loftier
position than before : Paul cont inued not merely to
9

194 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

bestow his favors upon it, but admitted the General
to his intimate counsels.

Much embarrasment and distress, public and pri
vate, followed in the course of that struggle which
Paul IV. maintained with Spain ; and it was sup
posed that the Jesuit college at Rome, dependent as
it was upon alms, or the stated contributions of a
few, would fall into necessities. Difficulties did in
fact present themselves ; but means of relief were
ever at hand. " It will be as by a miracle," said
one to the General, " if your order is sustained at
such a time as this," " A miracle !" replied he,
"would it not rather be marvellous, if, while we are
serving God in reliance upon his promise, we were
to lack any good thing ?"

During the last year of Loyola's government of
the Society he was much occupied in contending
with the difficulties that impeded its progress in
France. The French clergy generally, and notwith
standing the favor shown to the Jesuits by Henry II.,
by the Cardinal of Lorraine, and by the court, enter
tained a deep suspicion of the new order, and fore
saw the consequences inevitably to result to them
selves from its obtaining the ascendency in France.
They must lose ground, precisely in proportion as
the Society gained ground : they well understood
that the Jesuit principle is — exclusiveness and su
premacy : they knew well that Jesuits, while hold
ing back from ostensible dignities and emoluments,
were, at a rapid pace, tending toward a position
whence they might give law to the Catholic world !
The French clergy of the sixteenth century appear
very generally to have understood that which Pas-

HIS LAST DAYS. 195

cal, in the seventeenth, would not, or dared not,
permit himself to discern — namely, that those per
versions against which he inveighed we re the proper
and necessary products of Jesuitism, such as its
founder had made, and had left it. The decree of
the Sorbonne against the order of Jesus, although
it does not touch the intimate moral sophism on
which the Society is founded, and does not reach
the very centre, nevertheless so defines the circle
of mischiefs as to make it easy to reach that centre.
Strange that a mind like Pascal's should have
failed to find its way along these radii !

All his colleagues urged the General to furnish to
the church and the world a formal refutation of the
charges brought against the Society by the faculty
of theology at Paris. He knew his part better, and
enjoined upon them the silence and the patience
which he imposed upon himself. " Truth," he told
them, "will prevail over that temporary illusion
which, just now, leads the doctors of the Sorbonne
to misrepresent and oppose the Society. But truth
will avenge herself, and us, in due time." Loyola,
perhaps, while in sincerity he reminded his friends
of these truisms, inwardly felt that the apprehen
sions of the French Church were but too well
founded, and that the unrestricted triumph of the
Society in France could mean nothing less than
the disparagement and subjugation of the native
hierarchy.

After a time, and by yielding to the storm, the
vehemence of this opposition abated, and the So
ciety crept on until it had gained as firm a footing
in France as elsewhere. Loyola, while he so well

196 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

understood human nature and the course of affairs
as to enable him to steer his bark through instant
perils, in the modes of negotiation, or by the man
agement of individuals, kept his eye steadily fixed
upon those permanent means of success which, if
they be neglected, must render the most astute and
able administration of affairs unavailing. He showed
himself to be not merely a good pilot in a storm,
but a master of every science which a thoroughly
trained navigator should understand. It was thus
that, in his colleges, and where, as in so many in
stances, men of one nation were trained to exercise
their functions in another, he enjoined and enforced
the most assiduous study of the language of the
country, and required it especially of those who
were to be preachers, or who were to exercise their
ministry among the common people, that they
should show themselves to be thoroughly accom
plished in the colloquial use of the language. He
would grant no indulgence to grammatical incor
rectness, even the most trivial ; he would allow no
foreign idioms, no foreign accents, no college stiff
ness or pedantry to pass unconnected. The Jesuit
preacher or confessor must be able to win his way
in public and in private by satisfying the ear and
taste of the most fastidious. That he might set a
good example on this ground, he employed a friend
usually at his side, to note each instance — and such
instances were frequent — in which, during free con
versation, he offended Italian ears.

It was thus that the same clearness and vigor of
understanding which had impelled him, in his thir
tieth year, to place himself under the rod, among

HIS LAST DAYS. 197

boys, in a Latin class, impelled him also, in his
sixty-fifth, to submit his daily colloquial discourse
to the correction of a smart Italian youth ; and the
measure which he dealt out rigidly to himself, he
dealt out as rigidly to others. Whatever we do for
the glory of God, he would say, and the good of
souls, must be done, not in a slovenly manner, but
in the most perfect manner.

Years of excessive labor were now fast anticipa
ting the ordinary course of decay; and the General,
in presence of the assembled members of the order,
declared himself no longer able to bear alone the
burden of the Society. He would not, however,
himself appoint a coadjutor ; but he called upon
them to look out from among themselves one whom
they might judge to be competent to the task of
rendering him the aid he needed. A Spanish Jesu-
ite, named Jerome Nadal, received the suffrages of
all ; and he, without any infringement of Loyola's
absolute authority, thenceforward, and till his death,
transacted the business of the order. From that
time the General concerned himself chiefly, or
solely, with the care of the sick, his attentions to
whom were assiduous and tender. " One so laden
with infirmities as I am, and who suffers so much,
may well feel sympathy with others, and must be re
puted to be skilled in administering relief or solace."

But these, his last labors of charity, were speed
ily brought to a close. Rome at that time resounded
with martial preparations ; it was no longer the
place where one like Loyola could choose to remain ;
and he retired to a small house of the order, at
some distance from th'e city. This removal, how-

198 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ever, from whatever accidental cause, instead of
proving beneficial, seemed to hasten his end. He
declined daily : those around him, however, and
his assidious medical attendants, apprehended nc
immediate danger. He himself felt that his depart
ure was at hand. Nevertheless he allowed his
friends to employ whatever means they thought
likely to promote his recovery, of which none but
himself despaired : despair is not the word to apply
to Loyola's state of mind, in the near prospect of
death. He confessed himself, and received with un
wonted fervor " the body of our Lord Jesus Christ."

One care only now remained to him : this was
to obtain, while yet he could be conscious of so great
a solace, the apostolic benediction. " Go," said he
to his secretary, — " Go, and ask for me, from the
pope, his blessing, and indulgence for my sins, so
that my soul may be the better sustained in pas
sing the terrors of this moment." The secretary,
assured by the physician that death was not at
hand, delayed till the next day to execute this com
mission. Having given attention to some ordinary
matters, he was left for the night, by the Fathers
in attendance, who believed that he would survive
some time. In the morning he was found still con
scious, and able to listen to that message of grace
which had just been obtained for him from the
pope. Soon afterward, joining his hands, raising
his eyes toward heaven, and feebly pronouncing
the one word, " Jesus.," he expired.

This event took place an hour after sunrise, on
Friday, the last day of July, in the year 1556 ; and
in the sixty -fifth year of his age.

CHAPTER VIII.

LOYOLA'S MIND.

THOSE must be feeble-minded indeed whose ill
opinion of Jesuitism would make it difficult for them
to form an estimate of the personal character of its
author, on the broad ground of Christian charity
and philosophic equanimity. In this instance the
writer may easily believe that the reader is quite
willing to accompany him in the endeavor to reach
a conclusion, which shall offend no dictate, either of
genuine religious feeling, or of an enlightened phi
losophy. And yet, even when we stand clear of
every narrow prejudice, we are far from finding our
selves in a position whence it might be easy to form
our opinion of the personal character and merits of
a man like Ignatius Loyola. Indeed there are few
tasks more difficult within the department of moral
science, than that of estimating, fairly, candidly, and
correctly, the virtues and talents of a saint of the
Romish Church ! The difficulty especially attaching
to problems of this class is twofold, resulting, in the
first place, from what we could not call the fraudu
lent, but rather the unreal, or unsubstantial style
in which it has become the settled habit of Romish
writers to compose the biographies of their worthies.
With scarcely an exception, they compile such me
moirs under the influence, or inspiration, of that

200 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

polytheistic temper with which the saint- worship
of their Church has, in a greater or less degree, de
praved all the moral and religious sentiments of its
adherents.

Polytheism — and not less so in its mitigated form
of saint-worship — polytheism has, in every age and
among every people — cultured or barbarous, shown
itself to be a "strong delusion," shedding falsity
upon everything near it. A man of sound mind
is instantly conscious of this influence, when he
enters the temple of the Church's canonized ones.
Colorless daylight does not enter that fane: — a
sepulchral taint sickens the atmosphere, and he who
has not, by effort and practice, gained command
over himself, exclaims, "If I stay long in this place
I shall lose my senses : let me escape from it while
I can."

The difficulty that besets us in these instances is,
we have said, twofold ; the first arising from the il
lusive style of the writers from whom all our infor
mation must necessarily be derived ; the second,
and which is still more formidable than the first,
springs from that deep illusiveness of unreality, that
attaches, from his training, and from the atmos
phere he has always breathed, personally even to
the most eminent of the Romish worthies.

Due care, and a patient employment of certain
rules of historical investigation, may, in some good
degree, enable us to surmount the first-named ob
stacle, and may put us in communion with a great
and good man — spite of his unwise eulogists. Thus
in endeavoring to obtain a correct idea of an object
which we can see only through the medium of a

HIS CHARACTER. 201

distorted lens — let us suppose it to be a beautiful
V statue — is would happen that, although there might
be no single position of the lens which did not pre
sent an image of deformity, instead of symmetery,
yet that, by shifting this medium in various modes,
we should at length be able so to compensate one
distortion by another, as, when all these misrepre
sentations were collated, would make up, in idea at
least, a true conception of the real figure.

In the condensed personal history which has now
been placed before the reader, little regard has been
paid to those narrations which, if they be not foolish
fabrications, imply what must have been super
natural, or must nearly have bordered upon the
miraculous. Yet as there are but slight traces (if
any), in Loyola's own and undoubted writings, of a
pretension to miraculous powers, no hesitation need
be felt in treating all such narratives as unworthy
of serious attention. Besides several instances of
miraculous cures effected by " our saint," and of
predictions marvellously fulfilled, we are told by his
biographers that, on frequeut occasions, he came
forth from his devotions with a face luminous and
•>*•- radient — in a literal sense. Nor was it unusual, we
are told, for him to be found, at his devotions, float
ing in the air, a foot or more from the ground !
From the encumbrance of all this decorative stuff,
wre release, without scruple, the real Ignatius
Loyola.

And yet he is still found to be enveloped in that
which one feels is factitious, and which cannot alto
gether be carried to the account of his biographers.
Loyola, we must remember, had reached adult
9*

202 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

years at the time of his conversion ; and his mind,
at that period, was a waste ; the reasoning power had
not been trained ; scarcely at all had it been quick
ened. Although with him the purely intellectual
faculties were of extraordinary grasp, they had
slumbered through what might be called a baby
hood of thirty years ; and when at length they were
awakened, the moral emotions and the religious im
pulses had already taken a form with which reason
never afterwards interfered. Loyola's reason mas
tered every impulse, even the strongest, which his
religious convictions disallowed ; but it never ven
tured to bring those convictions to its tribunal. It
is thus that he stands before us, at once, the boldest
of all innovators, and as the most unquestioning and
submissive of the Church's dutiful sons. His intel
lect was of giant strength ; but a silken thread was
always enough to bind it in allegiance to the faith
and usages of the Church. No spirit more daring
than his, or more purely original and self-informed,
in relation to whatever he held to be free to him, or to
be at his full disposal ; none more abject in relation
to what, from his cradle, he had regarded as sacred.
Loyola could never have been the reformer of es
tablished systems ; for he worshipped every shred
of the ecclesiastical tatters of past ages. But he
was the inventor of a scheme essentially his own,
and with marvellous sagacity, and a tact fertile in
resources, he contrived to lodge the prodigious
novelty — the Society of Jesus — within the very ady-
tom of the old system, and to do so, without noise,
without any displacement of parts, or the breaking
off even of a moulding ! By his hands a house

HIS CHARACTER. 203

was built within a house ; yet none had heard the
din of the builder's tools while it was in progress.

While therefore we have to do, not merely with
one who is good and devout, according to the fash
ion of the Romish or Mediaeval Church, but with a
man who takes his place among a very few on the
list of the intellectually great, this greatness shows
itself not at all on the side of his saintship : on that
side Loyola is a " saint" only, and is as devout, and
often as absurd as are any of the class to which he
belongs ; and this ever-exaggerated and exaggera
ting pietism, which is content with nothing that is
riot enormous, is driven to the necessity of being
factitious ; — it is a tawdry heroism. The things
said arid done are in themselves, perhaps, good and
approvable ; but they are so done and said as if a
harlequin were doing and saying them. At every
turn of the bedizened performer we are inwardly
perplexed, not knowing whether we should admire
or scorn what is passing before us.

Several instances of this kind, attaching to Lo
yola's first season of religious fervor, have already
been briefly mentioned ; others of a similar kind are
on record, in relation to which the plea of inexperi
ence cannot be advanced. If any doubt attaches
to their authenticity, every generous mind will re
joice to throw them aside as spurious.

It was not the founder and general of the order
of Jesuits, but the " Saint Ignatius," whom we have
followed, begging crumbs of bread at the doors of
hovels, with a heavy purse in his girdle ; or lodging
himself in an hospital, at the cost of its charitable
fund, within sight of his paternal castle, where his

204 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

presence was earnestly desired : these, and other
instances of puerile extravagance, belong to his ear
lier years ; but other instances, not more to be ap
proved of, enter into the peiiod of his generalship,
He might, perhaps, think himself obliged to set an
example of strict adherence to the principles of the
institute, on occasions that were likely to attract
attention, and to be noised abroad. Thus one day
the porter broke in rather hastily upon the General's
retirement, bearing in his hand a packet of letters
that had just then arrived from Guipuscoa, and
which, no doubt, contained tidings from his rela
tives, of whom he had heard nothing for a long
time. These letters might perhaps relate to the
most important interests of the writers, if not to his
own ; but it was the Jesuit rule to cut off all those
occasions of entanglement with the things of this
life, which might spring from a natural regard to
the temporal well-being of relatives. Loyola, there
fore, snatched the packet from the hand of the
porter, and, in his sight, threw it, unopened, upon
the fire !

We are told that this " great saint" so gloried in
reproaches, and received with so keen a relish in
dignities and scoffings, that, if he had not been re
strained by a consideration of the ill effect such be
havior might have had upon the minds of some, he
would, when opportunity offered, have feigned him
self mad, have run forth into the streets, covered
with filth and tatters, and he would have done this
for the very enjoyment of it ! That he might feel
himself to be as the scum and offscouring of all
things, he would have drawn upon himself the

HIS CHARACTER. 205

hootings of the rabble ! Does it seem probable that
St. Paul would thus have beseemed himself?
Surely his history, and his epistles, say that he
would not ; and therefore, inasmuch as Loyola was
not wanting in intelligence or good sense — as he
was no half-witted fanatic, this preposterous style
of behavior, or this professed readiness so to act,
can be attributed to nothing but the radical un
sound ness of that system of moral training under
which he had grown up.

In his latter years the General was frequently
compelled to put himself into the hands of the med
ical attendants of the house. On these occasions it
\vas his rule to set an example of that perfect obe
dience which was the first law of the Society. From
the moment when he asked the advice of his phy
sician, and until the day when discharged by him as
convalescent, he surrendered, not merely his body, but
his judgment, to the will and disposal of him, whether
skilful or otherwise, whom, for the time, he had ac
knowledged to be his sovereign lord. On one of these
occasions, when suffering grievously from an inter
nal inflammation, to which he was subject, it hap
pened that a young and inexperienced physician,
and who knew nothing of Loyola's constitution, was
then serving as medical attendant in the house.
When summoned to attend the General, he imme
diately employed means which the patient well
knew to be utterly improper in his case, and which,
in fact, aggravated the symptoms in a fearful man
ner. It was a sultry summer time, but all windows
and doors were to be closed, the coverlets were to be
doubled — his drinks to be administered hot, and his

206 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

wine was sour. Loyola, thoroughly understanding
as he did his own malady, felt that the treatment
he was now subjected to could not fail speedily to
be fatal : he knew too that a change of treatment
would instantly give him relief. But " obedience"
was his part — obedience, according to his own pithy
expression — perinde cadaver ; and it was now cer
tain that a very few hours' continuance of this pro
cess of voluntary and superfluous martyrdom would
have put a literal interpretation upon the meta-
phoric phrase, as applied to himself. At the mo
ment, however, when life was ebbing fast, the
Fathers rushed into the chamber, and seeing clearly
what was the error of the stripling doctor, insisted
upon putting the life of their superior into better
hands : this was done, and he survived ! If this
story be true, it must be taken as furnishing a proof
and illustration of what has been alleged, namely,
that there was a factitiousness in Loyola's moral
condition, which much perplexes any endeavor we
may make to estimate correctly the quality and
power of his understanding. If it be not true, or
if it be a much exaggerated narrative of what took
place, then it curiously exemplifies that vitiated
taste which at first prompted such a fabrication, and
which renders it acceptable to the ears to which it
is addressed.

It can scarcely be affirmed that Loyola found
ready to his hand, within the Romish Church, ele
ments, intellectual or religious, that needed only to
be moulded anew to suit his purpose. These ele
ments existed indeed in human nature, and it is
true also that the jarring movements of the six-

HIS CHARACTER. 207

teenth century tended to bring them more within
his reach than otherwise they might have been.
But it is certain that the modes of thinking, and
the habits that had so long been cherished within
the Church, especially within the circle of its mo
nastic enlosures, were far from being what can be
regarded as constituting a fit preparation for the
Jesuit Institute. Jesuitism, while taking to itself
the concentration and the intentness that had be
longed (at their best) to the monastic bodies, ran
counter to them all in its main principle, as well as
in the practical application of that principle. Mo-
nasticism had subsisted, or it was intended to sub
sist, as a sort of moral anomaly in the midst of a
sensual world ; but Jesuitism planted itself as an
anomaly in the bosom of the Church. The Monk
vows to deny himself as to his earthly appetites ;
the Jesuit, as to his spiritual tastes. The men of
the monastery are, or they should be, aspirant fol
lowers in that right-hand angelic stream that is
ever ascending Jacob's ladder, from earth to heaven ;
but the company of Jesuits offers itself to the eye
on the sinister side of the same colossal scale ; and
its members are perpetually descending from heaven
to busy themselves with the things of earth. It
was no easy task to turn a stream that had flowed
so long in one direction ; and merely to imagine
such an enterprise as that of turning it, was the
effort of a powerful and self-prompting intellect,
confident in its own wrought-out conclusions, and
immoveably fixed in its grasp of what it had thus
created for itself.

And as the scheme was vast, the execution of it,

208 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and the perpetual administration of a system so
novel in its intentions, and so wide in its actual ex
tent, demanded the rarest talents. Loyola's power
over other minds was such as belongs to those men
of genius — a few in any age — or rather a few in
the lapse of ages, who had first acquired a sove
reign power over themselves, before they asserted
their right to rule the world. He was master of
other men, and even of some superior to himself in
mind and accomplishments, because he had be
come more master of himself than were they of
themselves. It does not appear that he ever failed
to carry his purposes within the Society, or even
within the circle of the Church, so far as any of its
measures or movements might affect the interests
of the order. In each instance in which he under
took to wrestle with authorities he finally prevailed,
as by a sort of molluscous pertinacity : he wound
himself round his antagonist, nor could there be
any release from the boneless gripe — except by the
spell of that consenting word, " be it then as you
will !"

In those encounters of this sort that are recorded,
what Loyola had to do was, not so much simply to ob
tain the consent of authorities to particular measures
which he wished to carry, and which they might
think adverse to their interests, as to convince them
of the soundness of a principle wholly new to their
minds. And thus also towards recusant members
of the Society, the question between the General
and the insubordinate Jesuit, was often a question
of principle, which the subaltern had not, as yet,
comprehended. It was the task of Loyola to forge

HIS CHARACTER. 209

upon many hundred minds the IDEA of the Society;
and in the execution of this task, far more than in
the compilation of its code, he displayed a power
and a unity of purpose, surpassed by few of the
achievements of either philosophers or legislators.
No instance is mentioned of his having lost sight
of his master principle, or of his giving way, except
for a moment, to any infringement of it. In mat
ters not touching this principle he was easily com
pliant, and seemingly open to the impulse of cir
cumstances. Even in things that did affect the
working of the institute, he was far from showing
himself to be opinionative, or unduly prepossessed
in favor of his first determinations. Consistency,
| not pertinacity, was Loyola's characteristic.

Much was always left to the discretion of the
several provincials in the government of the So
ciety. The General, vigilant and cognizant of all
details, was yet quite superior to the folly of attempt
ing to do and to rule everything. His colleagues
felt that they were trusted by their master, and they
were ordinarily well pleased when they could jus
tify the confidence thus reposed in them. By most
of them he was well and affectionately served. As
to the constitutions of the Society, it was by slow
degrees only that they came to be defined and fixed.
Their sagacious author, exempt as he was from the
I legislator's fond conceit that his theoretic code could
) admit of no improvement, wished rather that time
] and experience should teach him what in it was
/ practically good, and enable him to abrogate or to
' modify whatever had appeared to have been ill de
vised. Rigid in the enforcement of each actual

210 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

rule, so long as it stood upon the statute book, he
lent an ear at all times to reasons which might in
duce him to remove it thence.

Loyola understood too the respective offices of
faith, or religious motive, and of reason. He was
wary of emotion, when it might influence those de
terminations over which it was the province of rea
son to preside. It was his professed practice, on all
occasions of moment, to implore the divine guid
ance, with a simple-hearted fervor, as if heaven
was to do all : and having done this — then to apply
himself, with all his might, to every natural means
of success, by aid of energy, sagacity, and the cal
culation of causes, as if the event were wholly de
pendent upon human forethought and assiduity.
" Let us pray as if we had no help in ourselves :
let us labor as if there were no help for us in
heaven."

What is said of him by all his biographers, as to
the empassioned style of his devotions — and as to
the copiousness of that torrent of tears which seemed,
at length, to have quite exhausted his natural moist
ure, and to have brought him almost to the physi
cal condition of a mummy, must be admitted as
authentic in the main, and therefore as proving that
his temperament was far from cold, or purely intel
lectual. But he had learned a secret which, per
haps, very few passionate spirits ever learn, or ever
attempt to put in practice — namely, during the par
oxysms of emotion to unharness reason, arid to let
her stand by in her place. Loyola's emotions, how
impetuous soever they might be, never ran away
with his mind. At whatever time his bark was

HIS CHARACTER. 211

driven before the hurricane of religious fervor, rea
son was found to be safe on shore ; and ready to re
sume her place at the helm, when the winds were
hushed. He did nothing without emotion ; but he
did nothing at its bidding. " Impulse and feeling,"
he would say, "man shares with the inferior orders
around him ; but reason is his distinction, and with
him, therefore, it should be supreme."

A less pure reason than Loyola's could never
have conceived the Idea of the Society ; nor could
an inferior sagacity have governed it. Yet a spirit
less profoundly empassioned than his, must have
failed to breathe into it the soul and the vital force
which have carried it over the world, and given it
perpetuity. Loyola's reason, however, as we have
already said, was not at all occupied upon the ver
bally expressed dogmas of religious belief ; or not
in any manner that would warrant his being styled
a theologian, or that could make it a pertinent ques
tion — To what school of sacred philosophy did he
attach himself? The awful mysteries of the Chris
tian faith he discerned, in all their plenitude of un-
revealed wonders, during those trances or ecstasies
with which he was favored. His creed was always
and implicitly the Church's creed : his theology was
what he had felt to be true when in presence of
some effulgent manifestation of celestial objects;
he believed by intuition, not by interpretation of
Scripture.

Luther, credulous as he was in matters that did
not touch points of theology, reasoned hard and
logically always on every inch of biblical ground.
Loyola, who was wholly passive, or one might say

212 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

mindless on that ground, showed himself a shrewd
sceptic frequently, if not always, when called upon
to give ear to supernatural relations. The demon,
he would say, baffled in his endeavors to make him
self master of the souls of the saints, plays what
tricks he can with their bodies. To this cause —
that is. to the counterfeit operations of the wicked

spirit he attributed, not so often as he should have

done in his own case, but usually in the instance of
others, those semi-miraculous occurrences of which
the Romish Church has too much availed herself
for feeding the wonderment appetite of the popu
lace. A certain nun was reported to him as subject
to ravishments of the soul, during the continuance
of which she remained insensible even to fire Avhen
applied to her. and upon whose person something
resembling the famed stigmas of St. Francis at times
appeared ; and it was said that she could be brought
back to consciousness by nothing but a word of au
thority, uttered by her superior. "Aye," said the
General on hearing this recital, " Aye, I can well
understand the holy nun's obedience ; but as to her
stigmas, I must know more about them."

Minds of the vehemently impassioned class — and
Loyola's was such — are not often, if ever, gifted
with the imaginative faculty and taste : it does not
appear that he possessed this power or this taste in
any degree that might have exerted an influence
over his intellectual course. Nor, on the other hand,
does that luminous sagacity, which indeed was his
distinction, often combine itself with the creative
power, and the sensibilities that constitute the poetic
character. But then it was this utter want of imag-

HIS CHARACTER. 213

ination — it was this bare destitution of the power
to entertain simple conceptions of beauty and grand
eur, that threw him back, in his method of religious
meditation, upon " the beggarly elements" of a sen
suous imagery. Perhaps no book in existence, like
the " Spiritual Exercises," (which we are about to
analyze) exhibits the unavoidable grossness of that
descent from the spiritual to the sensuous, which
results from an absolute want of imaginative power.
If Loyola had been a poet by mental constitution,
the book of Spiritual Exercises, instead of its being
as it is, a fit instrument of Jesuit subjugation — an
engine of torture, — would have fascinated all the
world, and have beguiled the human family into its
toils.

It has often been remarked, concerning those
forms of superhuman beauty, which we owe to the
Grecian chisel, that they are not sensuous, and are
not obnoxious to the moral sentiment of a well-
ordered mind : — they are unearthly, because they
are purely, and in the highest sense, poetic. Now?
it is not unwarrantable to affirm of Loyola's mode
of picturing sacred subjects, that it is in the lowest
degree sensuous, because it is not in any degree
poetic. Nevertheless, that which, to minds less pas
sionately devout than his own, is, and must ever
prove itself to be, of debasing tendency, did not thus
operate upon a soul so fervent as his.

Fervent he was — fervently devout ; and our Prot
estant notions would lead us into a very perilous
kind of uncharitableness if they forbad our thinking
of Ignatius Loyola as an eminently good and Chris
tian man. If some hesitation is felt when it is de-

214 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

manded of us to allow him his designation as a
great man, it is because the conception of greatness
seems to include necessarily that which the founder
of Jesuitism manifestly wanted; namely, an enno
bling inspiration springing from the sensibility of
the soul toward beauty and sublimity in the natural
and in the moral world.

PART II.

JESUITISM IN ITS RUDIMENTS

-X^^-^^^^^N^N^^^^^^N^^N^^Nx^rVN--

CHAPTER I.

THE "EXERCITIA SPIRITUALTA."

ALTHOUGH it does not enter into the plan of this
essay to trace the history of Loyola's Institute, we
may, for a moment, look onwards to a time dating
about a century after his death; and shall then
find a state of feeling and opinion, in relation to
the Society, prevailing, not merely on the Protestant
side of the European community, but on that of
most Catholic nations, which offers a problem that
can be solved only on one of the following suppo
sitions, — or, by taking into the account a part of
each.

The high merits and indefatigable labors of very
many of the Company of Jesuits being admitted,
while nevertheless it had drawn upon itself the
darkest suspicions, or even the vehement hatred of
Catholic governments and people, it must be sup
posed — Either that these suspicions and that this
odium were altogether unwarrantable and ground
less ; or, That being in the main well founded, the

216 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Society had, within the brief period of a few years,
lost the spirit and forgotten the intentions of its
founder, and had undergone a moral degeneracy
more rapid than has taken place in any parallel
instance, and of which no intelligible account can
be given ; or, That the suspicions and hatred of
mankind being, as above supposed, but too warrant
able, the Society, instead of having, in the usuaK
sense of the word, degenerated, or of its having j
departed from the^cpucse prescribed for itv had only i
clevelopedthe principles of its^_constitutiop ; and, '
while rendering itself odious to states, and an object
of indignant dread throughout the world, it had, /
nevertheless, faithfully given effect to the spirit an.d \
letter of its code.

This last supposition we assume to be the only
one which can be adhered to consistently with the
facts of the case : and it is moreover believed that
an analysis of this code, or of what we have termed
the canonical writings of the Society, exhibits
clearly, and incontestibly, those germs of evil which
have rendered, and which must ever render Jesuit
ism a vicious institution, and must make it a source
of mischief, moral and political, in the bosom of
nations.

What may be regarded as the canonical writings
of the Jesuit Society, comprise, — The Spiritual
Exercises ; — The Letter on Obedience, addressed
to the Portuguese Jesuits; — The Constitutions,
with the original notes thereon ; and the Directo-
rium ; of each of which some account must be
given, with a brief descriptive analysis of its pur
port.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISE. 217

The book entitled Exercitia Spiritualia, was, as
to its rudiments, if not more, the earliest produce
of Loyola's mind ; nor is it on that account merely
entitled to the earliest place in an examination of
the documents of his Institute ; for it has always
been regarded by the Society itself as the nucleus
of the system, and has been made use of as the
Text-book of initiation : in truth, it might be des
ignated, not unfairly, as the Bible of Jesuitism.
The most approved Jesuit writers have not hesitated,
in terms more or less distinct, to claim for it the
sanction of inspiration ; and a living writer of the
highest repute, in commending a translation of it
to the English public, does not seem to shrink from
such a supposition ; although the adroit use of a
parenthesis saves him from the necessity of plainly
avowing his own conviction in this particular. "It
is a plan," he says, (that laid down in the Spiritual
Exercises) " framed by a master-mind, (unless we
admit a higher solution) capable of grappling with
the most arduous and complicated task."

Loyola, as we have seen, required every one of
his early colleagues in turn, and not excepting those
of them who were far his superiors in accomplish
ments and in general intelligence, to pass regularly
through the course of discipline which this book
prescribes ; and from that time to this, it has been
the door, and the only door, into the Society. More
over, it is enjoined upon those who, not intending
to become members of the Society, but seeking only
their personal advancement in piety, wish to place
themselves, for a time, under the spiritual direction

218 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

of a Jesuit father, that they should submit them
selves to this course.

In the Directorium, or book of instructions for
those whose duty it may be to superintend the
initiatory discipline of candidates, and which was
drawn up, digested, and sanctioned, by Loyola's
successor, Aquaviva, the "Spiritual Exercises" are
held forth as of primary authority and utility, and
as of universal application ; and in the " Constitu
tions of the Society," the same place of primary im
portance is assigned to them. We are bound, there
fore, to regard this book as containing, what the
Society declares it to contain — namely, the very
substance, or germinating rudiment of Loyola's
Institute. Wonders of moral cure have been ac
complished by it, we are assured, in the course of
three centuries ; and similar wonders are formally
warranted to result, invariably, from a due use of
it still, if employed under an authentic direction.
As sure is it to produce its result — that is to say, an
entire conversion from sin to holiness — as sure, even
in the most desperate instances, as is Euclid, to
bring every rationally constituted mind to one and
the same conclusion. " The mind may struggle
against the first axiom, or rather demonstrable truth
in the series ; but once satisfied of this, resistance
is as useless as unreasonable ; the next consequence
is inevitable, conclusion follows conclusion, and the
triumph is complete. The passions may entrench
themselves at each step, behind new works, but each
position carried is a point of successful attack upon
the next, and grace at length wins the very citadel.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 219

Many is the fool who has entered into a retreat to
scoff, and remained to pray."* *

No book whatever, perhaps, could be named which
would so much surprise and disappoint the natural
expectations of a reader who, entirely uninformed
of its contents, should open it with some vague con
ception of its purport, engendered by the title, and
by a knowledge, not very exact, of the character
and temperament of the writer. " The " Spiritual
Exercises" of St. Ignatius Loyola ! a Spanish devo
tee of the most ardent temperament — a man whose
tears of joy and penitence flowed like a perennial
brook — the chivalrous champion too, of "the Bless
ed Virgin ;" — a man of habitual ecstasy, and who
was favored with visions the most extraordinary.
What then shall be the "Spiritual Exercises" of such
a saint, composed at the very moment of his first
fervors in the religious life?

The very contrary are they of what it is so natural
to expect. There are to be found in this book no
rhapsodies, no outbursts of devout feeling, no imag
inative revellings in scenes of paradisiacal pleas
ure : there is in it no enthusiasm, no fanaticism, no
presumptuous intrusion upon the mysteries of heav
en : nothing in it is expanded, nothing is elabora
ted, in the way of description ; the book is enlivened
by no eloquence, is deepened by no pathos. There
is in it nothing savoring of Dante, nothing even of
Bonaventura: nothing of St. Bernard, nothing of
St. Basil, nothing of Thomas a Kempis: — nothing
after the fashion of the modern mystics.

* Preface to the Spiritual Exercises by Dr. Wiseman.

220 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The " Spiritual Exercises" is simply a book of
drilling ; and it is amiost as dry, as cold, and as for
mal as could be any specification of a system of
military training and field manoeuvres. But is it,
therefore, a book to be contemned, or to be hastily
glanced at? This will not be thought by those
who know what has been its actual influence within
a Society like that of the Jesuits. If indeed we
may believe that the world will outlive, not Jesuit
ism merely, but every scheme founded upon analo
gous principles, and if this book shall still be pre
served on the shelves of the antiquary, it will be
looked into with equal amazement and perplexity.
Strange will it seem that it should have been at
tempted, or even conceived of as possible, to bring
into existence a permanent religious condition— a
condition embracing all the compass of the most in
tense theopathy, by the means of a drill-book of
mechanical devotion — a drill-book to be got through
with in so many days— in twenty-eight ! Strange
that it should have been thought possible to connect
any such mechanism as this with the heaven-born
freedom of the Christian system ; and how strange
that such an attempt should, to so great an extent,
have been successful ! The philosophers of a future
time will perhaps attempt to unravel these perplexi
ties by recurring to the fact, first, that the influence
of Romanism, through a course of ages, had been
a preparation of the .human mind for yielding itself
to a scheme of this -very kind ; and then, that this
scheme, mechanical as it is, and diametrically op
posed as it is to the spirit of Christianity, does
nevertheless work up. and does avail itself of, some

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 221

potent rudiments of the Gospel. And how potent—
how omnipotent these are, is strikingly shown in
instances such as this, where the merest fragments,
when thus incoherently brought together, still retain
so much vitalizing energy, and fail riot to sway and
to vanquish the human spirit.

But we are told that this Novum Organon of
piety, whatever we may think of its contrariety to
human nature and to Christianity, has always
proved itself effective for its purpose — that it uni
formly and infallibly yields the result intended to
be accomplished by it. Take it in hand, submit
yourself without reserve to the process (under a pro
per direction) ; and although you be a heretic — a
very Luther, although a leper in moral depravity,
you will come forth, at the month's end, or let it be in
six weeks, orthodox in belief, and holy in heart and
life. Methods of cure applied to the body may in
deed fail, and they do fail, through the malignity
or the inveteracy of the disease : but this method of
cure, if duly applied to the soul, fails never !

Such, in substance, is the style of those who in
vite a sin-stricken world, even in these days, to try
the panacea of the " Spiritual Exercises !" The
class of practitioners who are wont to recommend
their nostrums in this very fashion, needs riot to be
named. Where such boasts, however, are made,
and where an " infallible cure" is thus announced,
there may surely be ground for a presumption that
the cures so effected are factitious, or are only skin-
deep; and that neither the human constitution, nor
the disease under which it labors, has been well un
derstood. This is certain, that thoroughly taught

222 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and honest practitioners carefully abstain from ex
citing hopes in their patients, which they well know
might fail of being realized, even if their skill were
ten-fold what it is.

This "spiritual" medicine, however, so we are
told, must always be administered by a qualified
hand ; and the afflicted must also enter the hospital,
where alone a successful treatment can be vouched
for. The practitioners, in this case, make no prom
ises to "out-door patients," any more than they do
to those who may think to purchase a bottle, and
doctor themselves. " The life of a good retreat is
a good director of it ;" so says the high authority
above quoted. But the patient is not perhaps in
circumstances to allow of his spending so long a
time as a month in a retreat. If so, the Society
adapts itself to the necessities of such persons ;
"the weeks of the Exercises do not mean necessa
rily a period of seven days (there are four such
periods embraced by the Spiritual Exercises). The
original duration of their performance was certainly
a month ; but even so, more or less time was allot
ted to each week's work, according to the discretion
of the director. Now, except in very particular
circumstances, the entire period is abridged to ten
days ; sometimes it is still further reduced."* The
good Ignatius was too conscientious to undertake the
cure of a vicious soul in less than twenty-eight
days ; and in difficult cases, he asked another fort
night. But how have all velocities been accele
rated in these times, and how marvellously have
all processes in the arts been abridged ! Once

* Preface above cited.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES.

223

a journey occupied a week, which now may be ac
complished in a few hours ! Once linen could not
be bleached in less than six months, now it may be
made white as snow in six days ; and now, in like
manner, it is authentically announced, that the
cure of a soul, that is to say, its entire cleansing
from all spot and stain of sin, may, in the case of
those who have little leisure at their command, be
warranted to be effected within "ten days," or even
a less space of time. Let none be incredulous—
this mighty transformation may be effected, and in
no slovenly manner, within the above-named period,
incredibly short as it is ! « A man is presumed to
enter into the course of the Spiritual Exercises in
the defilement of sin, under the bondage of every
passion, wedded to every worldly and selfish affec
tion, without a method or rule of life ; and to come
out from them restored to virtue, full of generous
and noble thoughts, self- conquering and self-ruling,
but not self-trusting, on the arduous path of the
Christian life. Black and unwholesome as the
muddy water that is poured into the filter, were his
affections and his soul ; bright, sweet, and health
ful as the stream that issues from it they come
forth. He was as dross when cast into the furnace,
and is pure gold when drawn from it."*

A month, in the by-gone times of sluggish move
ment, was the time assigned to this "filter" pro
cess—" ten days" now ; and who can say whether
some unthought-of improvenent in the method may
not ere long reduce it to three !

To call in question the reality of sudden conver-

* Preface, as above.

224 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

sions would be a perilous presumption. Such have
undoubtedly taken place in innumerable instances,
No fault, therefore, could be found, on this score,
with those who, in recommending1 the means they
employ for bringing men to repentance, affirm that
these means take effect often in a manner which
surprises themselves by its suddenness, and by the
thoroughness of the change, which perhaps has
had its commencement, its crisis, and its comple
tion within the compass of an hour ! Such things
have been. What is excepted against in the lan
guage of those who recommend a course of the
" Spiritual Exercises" is, the bold daring which en
gages that a certain round of devotional perform
ances shall uniformly, or ordinarily, and as a mat
ter of course^ if not invariably, produce conversion,
even in the most inveterate cases, and within a
definite period ;— twenty-eight days for those who
can afford, and who can endure, twenty-eight days'
seclusion in a retreat ; — ten days for those who are
too busy to spare a longer time ; and less still for
any who have less leisure at their command !
Every customer is thus assured of his conversion ;
and he has only to say how many days he can set
off from his business for undergoing the process !

Such are the moral wonders — well might they, if
real, be called miracles ! — which even now are war
ranted to be effected by a due use of the book before
us ! Who would not, then, look into it with an
eager curiosity ? Few protestant readers, probably,
have ever given themselves the trouble to bestow
upon it more than a transient glance. In fact, its
pages have so much the appearance of a school

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 225

manual, a grammar. 6T the rudiments of a science,
and there is so much of apparent repetition in them
— so much of what, if it may be practiced, yet can
not be perused, and so entire a want of expansion,
or of continuity, that some special motive is needed
to keep the reader's attention alive, while he follows
page after page. Such a motive may spring from
the conviction that Jesuitism is not to be understood
in any other manner than by a careful examination
of its authenticated documents.

The " Spiritual Exercises" were composed, we
are told, by Loyola, in the Spanish language — the
only language which he then understood ; and it is
affirmed that the author's autograph is now pre
served in the library of the Vatican. At an early
period, however, a Latin translation was effected
for the use of the Society in. all countries. Of late,
there have been several recensions of that transla
tion, in editing which a careful collation of it, word
by word, with Loyola's autograph has been made,
and the variations, where they were of any moment,
have been inserted, either within brackets, or at the
foot of the page, or at the end of the book. These
variations, however, are rarely such as should claim
any notice in relation to our immediate purpose.
The edition here made use of is that of Turin,
1838* ; and in any instance in which the too strong
rendering of a passage for the purpose of supporting

* This edition is stated to be a reprint of the fifth, which was the
last revised by Loyola himself ; and was printed at Antwerp, 1G96.
It was diligently compared by the Editor (Father Ignatius Diertins)
with the new literal version from the Spanish autograph published
at Rome in 1835, by the General of the Order.
10*

226 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

an inference might be suspected, the lately published
English translation, to which Bishop Wiseman gives
his sanction, and which he professes himself to have
compared with the original, and to have carefully
revised, is adhered to.

The body of this book is, as we have said, di
vided into four portions, to each of which a week is
assigned as the space of time within which the Ex
ercises it embraces may be gone through with ; this
time, however, may be lengthened or abridged ac
cording to the capacity, the proficiency, or the con
venience of the novice. In every case in which it
is possible so to do, he who wishes to pass through,
or rather to be passed through, " the Spiritual Ex
ercises," enters for this purpose a Retreat or house
of the Society, where he places himself under the
care of a director, who is to visit him once every
day, to instruct him in the course of meditation he
is to pursue, to examine him as to his progress, to
search his conscience, and to mark out his next
day's work, according to the proficiency he may
have made. A cell, as remote as possible from all
disturbance, is assigned to the use of the novice,
who is to hold little or no intercourse with other
inmates of the house ; and none with his relatives
or friends. The doors and windows of this apart
ment are to be closed, except when a gleam of light
is required for the purposes of reading or of taking
food.

It need scarcely be said, therefore, that what
neets the eye in the book before us, if considered
is an instrument intended to produce a given effect
upon the mind, bears a very small proportion to the

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 227

system of means employed in a Retreat for secur
ing this issue. The Directory is as nothing ; it is
the DIRECTOR, with his insinuations, his blan
dishments, his calm anatomic dissection of the soul,
his application of the mysterious stethoscope of con
fession ; it is the seclusion ; it is the long hours of f
solitude, the removal of all the refreshments of
social intercourse and occupation ; it is the dim cell '
and the interrupted sleep ; it is all these influences
together, that have rendered the " Spiritual Exer
cises" an effective means of conversion, whether to
Christian piety or to Jesuitism.

Twenty preliminary admonitions first claim at
tention ; the first of which sets forth in what light
the " Exercises" should be regarded : they are called
methods of dealing with the conscience, and of
meditating and praying. " For as to walk, to trav
el, to run, are bodily exercises, so also to prepare
and dispose the soul for removing all ill-ordered af
fections, and for seeking and finding the will of
God, after the removal of such affections, in rela
tion to a man's own course of life, and the salva
tion of his soul, are called Spiritual Exercises." A
point necessary to be understood in ascertaining the
drift of much that meets the eye in these Exercises
is this, that whereas the admission of the novice
into the Society (if the Society itself shall at length
think him likely to serve its purposes) is kept in
view from the first, the director is enjoined carefully
to abstain from all allusion to such an. issue of the
month's discipline ; and he is most scrupulously to
repress every intimation of a wish on the part of
the Society to secure such a result. An air of the

228 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

most absolute indifference, on this head, is to be
assumed, and is to be maintained by the director
toward the novice. All that may be done is to in
duce such a state of mind as shall throw a proba
bility on that side. Greatly will it promote the ad
vantage which the novice is likely to derive from
his course of exercise, if, with a magnanimous free
dom, he offers himself— his entire purpose and will,
to his Creator, so that he, and whatever belongs to
him, may be disposed of in the manner most con
ducive to the divine purposes, and most in accord
ance with the divine good pleasure. It is true
that the novice has in most instances set foot within
the Retreat with this awful issue distinctly in his
view ; and the director, on his part, never actually
loses sight of it, even for a moment : the one con
stantly thinks of himself as intending this immola
tion of himself; the other is always leading his
victim toward it. Meantime this reserve forbids
any word to be uttered by the novice which might
give vent to the feeling that is heaving his bosom ;
and it operates so much the more powerfully in im
parting an intensity of emotion to the spiritual agi
tations of this season of solitude.

Every temptation to shorten the period of each
act of meditation (one hour) is to be resisted, and
care taken, for the ease of the conscience, that the
stipulated time be always rather exceeded than
curtailed. This rule is especially to be observed in
seasons of spiritual desolation, which the adversary
never fails to take advantage of, for this very purpose.

In the instance of those whose fervor and eager
ness might prompt them too early and inconsider-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 229

ately, to bind themselves by vows, or to devote
themselves to the religious life, the director is to
preclude, if he can, any such precipitancy, or at
least he is to hold himself clear of any attempt to
promote or procure an early profession : —

" He who gives the Exercises (the director) ought
not to urge the other (the novice) to poverty and
the promise thereof, more than to the opposite ;
nor to this, rather than to that plan of life ; for
although, apart from the practice of the Exercises
(extra exercitia) it is not only lawful, but meritori
ous, to persuade any who, as to their personal qual
ities and condition, may be suitable for such a pro
fession, to embrace celibacy, the religious life, and
any other means of evangelic perfection ; yet is it
far more convenient and better, while the Exercises
are actually proceeding (inter exercitia) not to at
tempt anything of the kind ; but rather to seek for,
and to await the manifestation of the will of God ;
and to stay until the Creator and Lord himself
shall communicate himself to the soul devoted to
Him, and embracing it, shall dispose it to the love,
praise, and service of himself, as He knows to be
most fitting. Wherefore the director should, in this
behalf, hold himself in a position evenly balanced,
and without attempting to interpose, leave the
Creator to deal with the creature, and the creature
with the Creator in the affair."

If this mode of proceeding be not marked by the
purest Christian ingenuousness, if it do not savor
of godly simplicity, it has the opposite merit of ex
hibiting a nice perception of the depths of human
nature, and great skill in driving a highly-excited

230 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

mind onward toward a desired result, as if by its
own acts — influenced powerfully, and yet invisibly,
by a foreign force.

Should any motive of selfishness, or of worldly
ambition, seem to lurk in the novice's mind, the
most earnest endeavors of the director are to be
employed in eradicating any such unholy tendency.
For the sake of its ulterior purposes, the Society
rigorously excludes, or seeks to exclude, every other
view or aim from the minds of its members.

As often as it is discovered that the novice is of
slender understanding and weak character — in a
word, that he is one who is not likely to be service
able to the body, he is, for saving of time and cost,
to be summarily dealt with, and dismissed, within
the compass of a week ; and by no means is to be
carried forward to those exercises that relate to the
choice of a religious life.

As to those who have their time at their com
mand, and a serious purpose in view, it is recom
mended that they should entirely withdraw them
selves from the society of their friends and acquaint
ance, and should dismiss all solicitude about mun
dane affairs ; — that they should betake themselves
to some House of Retreat, or cell, whence they
may have easy access to a chapel, there to hear the
morning sacrifice of the mass, or the office of
Vespers, without interference of others. In such a
solitude, the soul comes into nearer communication
with its Creator, and is the better fitted to receive
heavenly favors.

That which is true and unquestionable, we find
often in these Exercises to be intimately com

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 231

mingled with positions which, although perhaps
susceptible of an interpretation not to be found
fault with, are equally susceptible of a rendering
that embodies the very sophism whereon factitious re
ligious institutes, in all ages, have rooted themselves.

" Man," we are told, " was created for this end,
that he might praise and reverence the Lord his
God, and serving Him, at length be saved. But the
other things which are placed on the earth were
created for man's sake, that they might assist him
in pursuing the end of his creation ; whence it fol
lows that they are to be used or abstained from in
proportion as they profit or hinder him in pursuing
that end. Wherefore we ought to be indifferent to
ward all created things, in so far as they are sub
ject to the liberty of our will, and not prohibited, so
that, to the best of our power, we seek not health
more than sickness, nor prefer riches to poverty,
honor to contempt, a long life to a short one. But
it is fitting, out of all, to choose and desire those
things only which lead to the end."

Thus it is that, in its rudiments, Jesuitism may\
not seem to differ at all from the earlier ascetic sys-:
terns. The principles assumed are perhaps iden
tical, and identical even in the phraseology that is
employed to convey tEem. The vast difference, in
fact, results from their application to modes of life
essentially unlike. Thus, for instance, the latter
clauses of the passage thus cited express that Buddh^
ist doctrine which all the ancient ascetic schemes
took up and professed; — a doctrine subversive at
once of genuine morality and piety, namely, that
those impulses of human nature which impel us to

232 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

pursue and to secure our well-being — animal, social,
and intellectual, are to be paralyzed, instead of
regulated. Christianity regulates human nature,
and works upon the basis of its undisturbed consti
tution. Instead of saying that a man " should not
seek health more than sickness, nor prefer riches to
poverty, honor to contempt, a long life to a short
one" — instead of this, it addresses these very in
stincts of self-preservation, and the desire of well>
being, and boldly says — reiterating the promises of
a less spiritual dispensation — " he that will love life
and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from
evil," &c. Christianity taught those whom it found
in the condition of slaves, in the first place, patiently
to endure so great a misfortune ; but then, and if
there were the opportunity to obtain freedom — "to
use it rather." Nothing can be more manifest than
is the contrariety of the ascetic dogma of indiffer-
entism or moral apathy, to the spirit of Christianity.
But then what is to be noted is this — that whereas
this sophistic principle was altogether in harmony
with the anchoretic mode of life, and was in keep
ing with its practices, and therefore took no firm or
broad hold of public morals, to deprave them, it has
been far otherwise with a Society the members of
which are sent forth to mingletamTITarly with the
world — to be as little distinguished as possible from
other men in their attire and their modes of be-
gfravior, and to diffuse themselves throughout the
mass in every mode of ordinary colloquial inter
course. We may be quite sure that an absolute
indifference to present good and ill can never be
maintained by more than a very few individuals

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 233

among- a mass of men, living abroad in the world,
and coming daily into contact with the good and
the ill of common life. So long, therefore, as this
stoic indifference is the professed principle of such a
body, its silent and introverted operation will be of
the most unfavorable kind upon the moraTsenti-
ments ; it will not fail to render the conscience ob
tuse, and to generate a constitutional disingenuous-
ness not very remote from hypocrisy. The bold
attempt which Loyola has made to disjoin the foun
dation principle of the ascetic institute from the as
cetic and anchoretic mode of life, can have no other
issue than this, and the fact should be noted as
foremost among the causes that have drawn upon
Jesuitism its ill repute as characterized by a cold
duplicity. Hundreds of hermits there have been
whose hard struggles against human nature —
whose "combats with the demon" — have attested
the honesty, if they have not established the wis
dom of their profession of indifference to all things
that affect only the well-being of the present state.
But can we believe that such inward conflicts are
maintained — or maintained successfully, by men of
ordinary mould, while passing to and fro among
the enticements, the solaces, the trials, the illusions,
and the realities of the open worMJ^x"

Much that meets the eye in these " Spiritual Ex
ercises" cannot but seem utterly inane and nuga
tory. The reader, not informed of the important
place which the book holds among the institutes of
so noted a society, would almost instantly throw it
from him, and take up in its stead, and with a feel
ing of comparative respect, the most frivolous sam-

234 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

pie of literary trifling. But if such a reader knows
anything of the conflicts of good and evil principles
in his own bosom— if he have himself, and in all
seriousness, contended against the ill impulses of
the heart, and have done so on the ground of Chris
tian motives, it must be with a feeling kindling from
contempt into indignation that he peruses such in
structions as the following, and is gravely assured
that, by the careful and punctilious observance of
inanities such as these, a vicious condition of the
soul, even the most inveterate, will be remedied —
and this — within so many days !—

— The novice is enjoined to sift his conscience
three times every day ; and after supper, each day, he
is to notify the frequency of his delinquencies in any
one respect (an easily besetting sin being specified)
by so many points made upon a line. Now, if due
diligence be used in checking this one evil propen
sity, each day's dotted line of actual transgressions
will be, by a little at least, shorter than the one
above it, and so onward and downward, from day
to day, until the persecuted sin has been reduced to
an infinitesimal quantity ; as thus —

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 235

Who that had, in this manner, and within the
compass of a few clays, brought an inherent vice of
his nature down from a four inches' length to a
point, would not try the efficacy of so sure and easy
a method upon the vice that happens to stand next
in order on his private list ? In this mode of treat
ment " sinner" may become " saint" as surely and
as quickly as a few theorems of Euclid may be
demonstrated !

The diagram above presented shows a week's
work in the eradication of " evil affections ;" but in
the same mode a progress in virtue may be geomet
rically expressed, as it advances from week to week,
or from month to month. " Of the following fig
ures, the first, which is longer than the rest, is as
signed to the first day, say the Sunday ; the second,
which is a little shorter, to the Monday ; and so in
succession, it being reasonable that the number of
faults should decrease daily ;" and so weeks suc
cessively may be treated mathematically.

There are minds, it is true, upon which inanities
of this sort might be imposed with as little harm,
perhaps, as benefit. But what must be the effect
of them upon a cultured mind that has reached
maturity, and that is awake to every impulse of the
moral sentiments? If methods sucli as these, so
frivolous and so illusory, be actually submitted to
by such a mind, there must first have taken place
such a crushing of the faculties as would come little
short of stupefaction ; and this in fact seems to be
the intention of this course of discipline. It is easy
to understand, from the sample just now given of
the methods of cure resorted to, what sort of resto-

236 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ration to virtue it is that is warranted to be effected
in twenty-eight days, or in ten !

The prominent characteristic of these Exercises
is the endeavor made from time to time, and per
petually repeated, to connect religious meditation
with sensible images exclusively ; that is to say, to
pre-occupy the conceptive faculty in every case with
sensuous impressions. The instances will be ad
duced, or a sufficient sample of them, as they occur.
The subjects of meditation being almost entirely
confined to a meagre series of incidents drawn from
the Gospels, great pains are taken to give a purely
graphic direction to the thoughts in dwelling upon
each incident. Thus, at the commencement it is
said : —

" The first prelude is a certain way of construct
ing the place — forming an image of the scene, for
which it must be noted, that in every meditation or
contemplation about a bodily thing, as for example
about Christ, we must form, according to a certain
imaginary vision, a bodily place representing what
we contemplate, as the temple, or a mountain, in
which we may find Christ Jesus, or the Virgin
Mary, and the other things which concern the sub
ject of our contemplation. But if the subject of
meditation be an incorporeal thing, as is the consid
eration of sins, now offered, the construction of the
place may be such as if by imagination we see our
soul in this corruptible body, or confined in a prison,
and a man himself, in this vale of misery, an exile
among brute animals."

That is to say, care is taken that in every in
stance the sensuous faculty shall not only be in. ex-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 237

ercise, but shall lead the way. In concluding a
meditation, well condensed in its subjects, upon sin,
a sensible colloquy is to follow between the penitent
and the Saviour — " imagined to be present before
me, fixed on the cross." Much that would be pointed
and affecting, if only it were separated from what is
mechanical and earthly, might be cited from these
Exercises relating to, or intended to produce, com
punction for sin. Thus, the emotions that should
be spontaneous, are ordered at the point where, in
due course, they are to be forthcoming ; as for ex
ample, — " The fifth point is to break forth into ex
clamations, from a vehement commotion of the feel
ings, admiring greatly how all creatures (going over
them severally) have born with me so long, and
even to this time preserved me alive ; how the angels,
bearing the sword of the divine justice, have pa
tiently borne with me, guarded me, and even assisted
me with their prayers ; how the saints have inter
ceded for me ; how the sky, the sun, the moon, and
the other heavenly bodies, the elements, and all
kinds of animals and productions of the earth, in
place of the vengeance due, have served me ; bow,
lastly, the earth has not opened and swallowed me
up, unbarring a thousand hells, in which I might
suffer everlasting punishments."

Of those peculiarities of Romanism which are
the most offensive to a well-ordered and scriptually
informed mind, as little as can be supposed meets
the eye in these Exercises. Nevertheless the great
distinctive " mark" of the Romish system is broadly
set upon the whole ; namely, the intercessory rela

238 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

tionship of the Yirgin to mankind, which is once
and again formally recognized. ^

Each Exercise is concluded with a colloquy, or a
conversation held between the penitent, and a divine
person imaged as present before the mind ; as thus,
— " The first colloquy is made to our lady, the
mother of Christ, by asking — flagitando — her in
tercession with her Son, and the gaining of grace
necessary to us for three things ; first, that we may
feel the inward knowledge and detestation of our
sins ; secondly, that, acknowledging and abhorring
the perverse order of our actions, we may correct
it, and rightly order ourselves according to God ;
thirdly, that perceiving and condemning the wick
edness of the world, we may recover ourselves from
worldly and vain things. These things having been
finished, let Ave Maria be said once."

The second colloquy is to be held with Christ the
Mediator, " that He would obtain for usthose same
things from the Eternal Father," — and the third —
going on in the same order — with God the Father."

A certain stage on the road of repentance having
now been reached, there follows — for the deepening
of the emotions already excited — a " contemplation
concerning hell ;" and this is so characteristic of
these spiritual exercises, that it should be cited
entire.

" The first prelude is here the forming the place,
which is to set before the eyes of the imagination
the length, breadth, and depth of hell. The second
consists in asking for an intimate perception of the
punishments which the damned undergo ; that if
at any time I should be forgetful of the love of God,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 239

at least the fear of punishment may restrain me
from sins.

" The first point is, to see by the imagination the
vast fires of hell, and the souls inclosed in certain
fiery bodies, as it were in dungeons. The second
is to hear, in imagination, the lamentations, the
bowlings, the exclamations, and the blasphemies
against Christ and his Saints, thence breaking forth.
The third is to perceive by the smell also of the
imagination, the smoke, the brimstone, and the
stench of a kind of sink, or filth, and of putrefac
tion. The fourth is, to taste in like manner those
most bitter things, as the tears, the rottenness, and
the worm of conscience. The fifth, to touch in a
manner those fires, by the touch of which the souls
themselves are burnt."

In observance of the prescribed order of going
through with the Exercises, this descent into hell,
occupying one hour, would be made late in the
evening — the hour before supper. No one would
deny that an hour's converse with terrors, in this
formal manner conducted, might have a salutary
influence in certain cases ; but we cannot forget
the fact, that, in proportion as any religious system
has been anti-spiritual and sensuous, it has been
prone to have recourse to these elaborated means
of stimulating, not the imagination, but the sen-
sorium. If this section of the Spiritual Exercises
be altogether of good tendency, then it must be
allowed that several noted chapters of the Koran
are of still better tendency. Loyola endeavors to
work upon the five senses, or upon the mind's power
of repeating their impressions, which indeed, except

240 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

as to sight and hearing, is extremely limited : but
Mahomet has done this in a far more effectual style.
Yet what has been the result of such attempts ?—
seldom, if ever, to awaken the moral sense. The
brain may be frenzied, while the soul is still dead.
If the Koran must not be adduced on this ground,
let certain passages of the Inferno be employed in
attempting to effect conversions — and let these be
aided by Michael Angelo's Last Judgment. Poor
tools for such a work !

Much might be cited, having the same purpose to
stimulate the lower faculties ; in truth this endeavor
is the characteristic of the book throughout. It is
in accordance with this intention that frequent
directions are given, better befitting the lips of a
posture master, than those of a religious teacher.
The penitent is directed to set about the allotted
contemplation — now kneeling on the ground, and
lying on his face, or on his back ; now sitting or
standing; and composing himself in the way in
which he may hope the more easily to attain what
he desires. Further to ensure success, he is "to
deprive himself of all the brightness of the light ;
shutting the doors and windows so long as he re
mains there (in his cell) except while he has to read
or take his food." The effects of meditation are to
be enhanced by penance, in three kinds ; first, by
diminishing the amount of aliment — the more one
withdraws (of food) the better one does ; avoiding,
however, the injury of one's constitution, or (induc
ing) any serious weakness or infirmity. — Secondly,
by shortening the time of sleep, always keeping in
mind the same caution, and lastly by infliction of

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 241

pain upon the flesh itself— as by the wearing of hair
cloth, ropes, or iron bars, the application of strokes
or blows, or the use of other austerities. In all
which things, however, it seems more expedient that
the sense of pain should be in the flesh alone, and
not penetrate the bones, with the danger of injury
to the health. Wherefore we should use in preference
whips made of small cords, which hurt the outward
parts, and not those within so as to injure the health."
The uses of penance, we are told, are threefold: —
"first, it makes some satisfaction for past sins ; sec
ondly, it aids a man in bringing his inferior nature,
his sensuality, into subjection to reason ; and thirdly,
it is a means of obtaining some gift or grace which
we desire."

As to these Exercises of the first week, we are
assured that by the means of them "Sin is aban
doned, hated, loathed." At the conclusion of the
painful task the soul finds itself prostrate, and full
of anxieties. The past is remedied ; but what is to
be done for the future? " It is the Exercises of the
second week that are to bring things forward to
their next stage."

It might be a point for literary discussion to deter
mine whether the palm of quaint ingenuity should
be awarded to the author of the Spiritual Exercises,
or to the Bedford dreamer. The "Holy War," to
say nothing of the "Pilgrim's Progress," is undoubt
edly more picturesque, and far more affecting too,
than are those meagre descriptions of the "Two
Potentates," which are the principal objects presented
in the second week's Exercises.

The person exercised is directed to form in his
11

242 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

mind "an imaginary vision, as if the whole circuit
of the earth, inhabited by so many different nations,
lay open before his eyes. Then, in one particular
part of the world, let the cottage of the Blessed
Virgin, situated at Nazareth, in the province of
Galilee, be beheld. He is to view in idea the human
beings living on the face of the earth ; so different
in manners, gestures, and actions; some white, and
others black ; some enjoying peace, and the rest
disturbed by wars ; this one weeping, and that one
laughing ; one well, another ill ; — many being born,
and many, on the other hand, dying; with other
varieties, almost innumerable. Next must be con
templated the three Divine Persons, from their royal
throne, looking upon all the races of men, living as
blind on the surface of the earth, and descending
to hell. Afterwards, we shall consider the Virgin
Mary, with the angel saluting her ; always applying
something thence to ourselves, that from such con
siderations we may derive some fruit.

" The second point," that is to say the second
part of this sensuous process, " is to perceive by the
inward hearing what all the persons are saying, as
what the men are saying, who on earth are con
versing together, blaspheming, reviling each other ;
what the Divine Persons are saying, who in heaven
are speaking to each other concerning the redemp
tion of the human race ; what the Virgin and the
angel are saying, who in a little cell are conversing
on the Mysteries of the Incarnation. By reflecting
on all which things," &c.

The third point in order will be " to consider at
the same time the actions also of the persons ; as,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 243

for instance, how mortal men are treating one
another, and all rushing to hell; how the most
Holy Trinity is performing the work of the incarna
tion ; how also the angel is executing his commis
sion, and the Blessed Virgin, bearing herself most
humbly, is giving thanks to the Divine Majesty.
From which things,'' &c.

Then follows the colloquy, in which the novice
"searches out words, with which he may worthily
address each Divine Person, the Word Incarnate,
and his Mother also."

This entire apparatus of what might not unaptly
be called PictorjalJPiety, indicates with sufficient
clearness one of the sources whence probably it was
derived — namely, those quaint mosaics with which
the pavements of churches were frequently deco
rated, as well as the painted windows and the altar
pieces, of which samples are still extant, especially
in the Italian churches. Another probable source
of these images will presently be mentioned. Lo
yola's stock of biblical knowledge, at the time when
the " Spiritual Exercises" were composed, embraced,
as it seems, very little beyond that which he had
gathered from such visible sources. The extreme
meagreness of his allusions to the Scriptures at
large, and the narrowness of that line of incident,
which appears to have been familiar to his memory,
renders it almost certain that the Picture-Gospel,
drawn forth upon church walls, or in illuminated
books, was all the gospel he had then learned. His
was far from being a creative or poetic imagination ;
it was a servile faculty, forging itself forward by
mechanical helps, from point to point, of a narra-

244

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

tive. It might be nothing1 more than some series
of decorations, resembling the Dutch tiles of a later
time, that suggested such labored descriptions as the
following.

The novice is to fancy the Virgin, " sitting on a
she-ass (as one may piously meditate) ; she and
Joseph, with a poor maid servant, arid an ox, set
out for Bethlehem, that they might pay the tribute
laid upon them by Caesar." Then he must form
his idea of the journey, as to its " length, obliquity,
smoothness, or roughness presenting itself from
place to place. Then also we shall examine the
place of the nativity, like to a cavern ; whether
broad or narrow, lying flat, or rising up, conveniently
or inconveniently prepared."

Is it a conjecture too bold, that one of the two or
three religious books put into the hands of Loyola,
when he asked for romances, to divert his suffer
ings, and one of which, we are told, was " a Life
of Christ," might be an illuminated summary of the
gospels, the pictures of which fixed themselves in
delibly in his fancy, and in fact became the germi
nating rudiment of these very Exercises? They
were composed, we are assured, almost immediately
after his conversion ; and what is the staple of them,
but precisely such as the rude cuts or paintings of
such a picture-gospel would furnish to a susceptible
but untutored mind ? In fact it is not easy to dis
miss the idea of the evangelic decorations, so co
piously furnished to the Christian world at that
time, while we peruse these methods of meditation.
Each of these scenes is to be gone over, again
and again, until the sentiment which it ought to

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 245

excite has actually been felt, and the repetition ig
to be made a fourth, a fifth time, or often er. The
sensuous faculty is, in a manner, to be worked to
and fro — and to be turned this way and that, among
these objects, until they have incorporated them
selves among the elements of the soul. "The first,
point is (as before) to see in imagination all the per- i
sons — the second, to hear what they are saying, or
what it may be natural for them to say ; the third,
to perceive, by a certain inward taste and smell, how
great is the sweetness, delightfulness of the soul
imbued with the divine gifts and virtues, according
to the nature of the person we are considering ....
The fourth, by an inward touch to handle and kiss
the garments, places, foot-steps, and other things
connected with such persons. ^^

The first process concerning the Incarnation, ia
to be performed "at midnight; the next at dawn ;
the third about the hour of mass ; the fourth about
the time of vespers ; the fifth a little before supper ;
and on each of them will be spent the space of one
hour." A diminished task is to be indulged to the
aged and infirm, or to those whose fervor of mind
too much exhausts the animal strength. Care, how
ever, is to be taken that whatever in the Exercises
is curtailed, there should always be before supper
" an exercise of the five senses of the imagination,"
on the subject appointed for the day. On the ob
servance of tliis rule the efficacy of these spiritual
exercises is said to hinge. To each day's task there
is added so many repetitions, together with " the
application of the senses."

The occupation of the fourth day of this second

246 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

week is sufficiently characteristic of the Jesuit
scheme, as to its method of initiation. It has al
ready been mentioned that although the director of
novices is carefully to avoid every allusion to the
supposed case of admission into the Society, and is
so to bear himself toward his pupil as if it had no
wish whatever that such should be the issue of his
month's preparation, yet (as will appear incontesti-
bly from what follows) this result is the real inten
tion of the Exercises, throughout which may be
discerned the track of an astute and well concealed
procedure, tending- onwards regularly towards the
the one end contemplated from the first.

The moment having arrived at which the novice
should endeavor to learn what is the mind of the
Lord, and should " search out and entreat that pe
culiar kind of life in which he prefers us to serve
his own majesty," a grand preparation is made with
this purpose in view, for inducing the desired elec
tion by working upon the sensuous faculty with the
aid of images more exciting than those heretofore
presented to it. While these images are described,
no one who has amused an hour in examining the
uncouth emblematic wood-cuts of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, can resist the belief that Lo
yola's own conversion had been mainly effected by
such means as these ; that is to say, that, while
languishing upon his couch he had beguiled the
hours of pain by the help of the sacred pictures of
some decorated Life of Christ, On the fourth day
of the second week, the person exercised is to enter
tain himself with '• a certain historical consideration
of Christ on the one part, and Lucifer on the other,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 247

each of whom is calling all men to him, to be gath
ered together under his standard. Then, for the
" construction of the place," there is to he " repre
sented to us a most extensive plain around Jerusa
lem, in which our Lord Jesus Christ stands as the
chief general of all good people. Again, another
plain in the country of Babylon, where Lucifer
presents himself as the captain of the wicked and
God's enemies." The novice is then instructed " to
imagine before his eyes, in the Babylonian plain,
the captain of the wicked, sitting in a chair of fire
and smoke, horrible in figure, and terrible in coun
tenance ;" — then it is to be imagined how this prince
of evil, "having assembled a countless number of
demons, disperses them through the whole world in
order to do mischief; no cities or places, no kinds
of persons being left free." Then it is to be con
sidered " what kind of address he makes to his ser
vants, whom he stirs up to seize, and secure in
snares and chains, arid so draw men (as commonly
happens) to the desinfof riches, whence afterwards
they may the more easily be forced down into the
ambition of worldly honor, and thence into the
abyss of pride."

In like manner, " on the opposite side, must be
considered our most exalted and excellent leader
and commander, Christ ;" who is seen " in a pleas
ant plain by Jerusalem ; placed indeed in lowly
state, but very beautiful in form, and in appearance
supremely worthy of love. He, the Lord of the
whole world, sends his chosen apostles, disciples,
and other ministers through the world, to impart tc
every race, state, and condition of man His sacred

248 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and saving doctrine ;" — then it follows, " to hear the
exhortatory speech of Christ to all his servants and
friends, destined to such a work, wherein He bids
them study to help all, and first to take care to lead
them to the spiritual affection of poverty ; and
moreover (if the course of duty to God and the
choice of heaven leads that wTay) to real and actual
poverty ; then to. draw them to the desire of re
proach and contempt, from which springs the virtue
of humility."

A colloquy is afterwards to be made by the nov
ice to the Blessed Virgin, and " grace is to be im
plored through her from her Son, that I may be
received and remain under his standard ; and that
first by poverty, either that which is only spiritual,
or further that which consists in the loss of one's
goods" (i. e. the abdication of his property) "if
indeed he shall vouchsafe to call and admit me
thereto — then by contempt or ignominy also I may
imitate Him the more closely," &c. " This exer
cise will be gone through once in the middle of
the night, and again just before dawn."

We are now nearing the critical point, and that
in relation to which the most solicitude is shown.
On his admission into the Society the professed
person must rid himself, in the most absolute man
ner, of all property, of all his personal rights and
possessions : henceforward he is individually to
own nothing. But for the purpose of gradually
leading the veiled novice to such a determination,
he is first to imagine three classes of men, each of
whom has acquired ten thousand ducats, with some
other aim than that of the service and love of God :

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 249

but who now desires to pacify God and to be saved,
getting rid, somehow or other, of the hurtful love
of property, as being a " hindrance to salvation."
Then the*e is to be imagined a " certain place, in
which I may see myself standing with perseverance
before God and all the Saints, with the desire of
knowing how I may best please God himself."

Men of the first sort, although they desire to be
rid of the love of property, use no effective means
for that purpose.^ Those of the., second sort go a
step further : but still hold fast the property, and
try rather to draw God to their own wish, than for
sake this hindrance^ But those of the third class
have brought themselves to a state of indifference,
being willing either to part with, or to retain the
property, whichever they shall perceive, either by
the divine motions, or by the dictates of reason, to
be more conducive to the service of God : and in
the meantime to bear themselves as they who have
left all in affection : striving, that is to say, "to de
sire neither this nor anything else, except so far as
the service of God may move them so as not to ad
mit any other course of leaving or retaining the
property acquired, except the consideration and de
sire of serving our Lord God better."

To induce this state of indifference is manifestly
a great point in the Jesuit system throughout. We
do not wish you to make a choice ; we deprecate
your doing so. All we ask is, that you should
bring yourself to a condition of indifference on the
question, and so abide until you shall feel yourself
swayed by the divine will.

A step further on toward the " Election" is made
11*

250 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

at the close of the second week, by propounding
what are termed " Three modes of Humility."
The first is that which is necessary for salvation,
and which demands such a state of sub^n'asion to
the known will of God as that no inducement, not
even the dominion of the whole world, or the ut
most danger of life, should avail to lead to a delib
erate transgression of any law which binds under
the penalty of mortal sin. The second degree of
humility, and which belongs to a^greater perfection
consists in that state of absolute indifference in
which the mind is equally inclined toward riches
and poverty, honor and ignominy, shortness and
length of life : and this state of indifference is such
that no motive, drawn from either side, would be
a sufficient inducement to commit even a venial sin.
The third mode, belonging to the most perfect hu
mility, the first and second having already been
obtained — supposes that, even if a regard to the
glory of God did not determine this way or that,
yet, " for the sake of__the greater imitation of
Christ, jPcEoose rather with him, who was poor,
despised, and mocked, to embrace poverty, contempt,
and the reputation of folly, than wealth, honors,
and the estimation of wisdom."

The spirit of a tortuous casuistry pervades the
preliminary instructions which are to induce the in
tended " election ; " and these instructions we may
perhaps attribute to the hand of Loyola, and assign
them also to a later date than that of the first com
position of the book.

The materials of meditation for the third week
are drawn from the incidents of the Passion ; and

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 251

in following these incidents, the same care as before
is taken to engage the sensuous faculty by fixing
upon the mind an image of the way, " as rough or
smooth, short or long," and of the place of the sup
per, " as wide or narrow, plain or adorned and the
like, the way descending first, and of steep ascent ;
also the garden, which must be imagined of a cer
tain size, shape and nature." In accordance with
this picture-practice of devotion, is that dry speciali
ty of the directions, how to secure the desired state
of mind in different cases : could rules such as the
following be observed by any but those whose
minds are already broken down by servility and
formality ?

If any one wishes to spend a longer time in
meditating on the Passion of Christ, he ought to
complete each contemplation with fewer mysteries;

so as in the first to include only the Supper

Then the " whole Passion" having been gone over
in one day, " on the following day, he may go over

half of it again, on the third day the rest

On the other hand, " if any one prefers to short
en the time, let him contemplate concerning our
Lord's Supper in the night ; concerning the garden
at daybreak," and so forth in detail. During this
week, particular attention is to be given to diet.
Bread is a less dangerous aliment than any other :
drink should be restricted carefully : cooked meats
and delicacies are to be very moderately al
lowed ; arid, in a word, so long as the health is not
injured by too much abstinence, the more absti
nence the better ; all the while the person exercised
may expect some rays of inward knowledge, aud

252 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

consolatory movements sent within him from heav
en, by means of which he will easily be able to dis
tinguish the plan of food which is the more advan
tageous for him. All eagerness of appetite, or
haste in taking food is to be avoided, and while
eating we should " imagine that we see the Lord
Jesus Christ taking food with his disciples, observ
ing the plan he follows of eating, of drinking, of
looking, and of speaking ; and proposing him for
our imitation."

The fourth week takes up the evangelic narra
tive at the moment of the resurrection, and this
closing week is to be a season of refreshment and
exhilaration ; therefore the novice may now throw
open his shutters, and " make use of the advantage
of light and sky which shall offer itself; as, in the
time of spring and summer the sight of the green
herbs and flowers, and on the agreeableness of a
sunny place ; in the winter, the welcome heat of
the sun, or of a fire, and so concerning the other
suitable satisfactions of the body and mind, by
which I may be able to rejoice together with my
Creator and Redeemer."

Amid this indulged comforting of the body and
mind, the critical business of the " election" is si
lently pushed forward ; and what occurs here, if
no sinister intention were apparent, would call for
approval. Yet who can forget that the issue thus
circuitously aimed at is the palpable affair of the
novice's abdication of his property? he is taught
thus to profess his willingness so to do : " Receive,
O Lord, my whole liberty: accept my memory,
understanding, and whole will, whatsoever I have

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 253

or possess, Thou hast given me : this all I restore
to thee, and to thy will, altogether deliver up to be
governed. Give me only the love of Thee, with
Thy grace, and I am rich enough, and desire noth
ing else beyond."

This fourth week is closed by directions for prac
tising " Three methods of Prayer." A sample, tak
ing the last or most perfect, sufficiently exhibits the
quality of this scheme of spiritual exercise.

" This third method of praying consists in this,
that between the several times of drawing breath I
pronounce the several words of the Lord's or some
other prayer, considering in the meantime either
the signification of the word uttered, or the dignity
of the person to whom the prayer is directed, or my
own vileness, or lastly the difference between the
two. In the same way the other words must be
proceeded with. One must add also the prayers
above mentioned, Ave, Credo, &c. Two rules ap
ply to this matter : the first that having finished the
Lord's Prayer, according to this method of praying,
on other days or hours, we take the Angelic Salu
tation, to be gone through, with a similar interval
of respirations, together with the other prayers to
be said in the usual way. The second rule is, that
he who wishes to exercise this method of praying
for a longer time, apply to it all the aforesaid
prayers, or parts of them, and observe similar inter
stices of breathings and words."

Such are the " Spiritual Exercises" of the Jesuit
Society !

There then follows what are called " The Mys
teries of the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ," and

254 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

which consist of a recitation, in brief, of the inci
dents of the gospel narrative, with very little of
annotation, and nothing that seems to deserve
citation.

The Exercises of the " Four weeks" comprise —
so we must think — all that belonged to Loyola's
original book ; in fact thus far it is a digest of his
own course of feeling in passing over that narrow
ground through which the Picture Life of Christ
had led him. So meagre is the stock of scriptural
materials worked up in these Exercises, so strictly
are the allusions confined to the graphic incidents
of the gospel narrative, and so utter is, or seems to
be, the author's ignorance of everything in the New
Testament, which stands beyond this strait path
way, that we may reasonably doubt whether he
had, at the time of the composition of the Spiritual
Exercises, ever read, or perhaps ever seen a Bible.
In a book intended to serve as an elaborate course
of discipline in piety, it can scarcely be imagined
that a writer — if himself perfectly conversant with
the pages of the Evangelists, with the Acts, and
with the apostolic epistles— should, for purposes of
excitement and instruction, have availed himself of
absolutely nothing beyond what he might find de
picted upon a painted window, or upon the margin
of an illuminated missal ! Might not some good
use have been made in these Spiritual Exercises of
Christ's discourses — of his discourse with his disci
ples, as reported by St. John ? Or could nothing
be found profitable " for correction, for reproof, for
instruction in righteousness" in the Epistles, either
of Paul, Peter, James, or John ? If Loyola had

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 255

actually read the Epistles, or indeed if he had read
the Gospels, it is marvellous that he should com
pose an elaborate practical directory — a manual of
conversion, such as this — in a manner so utterly
abstinent of all scriptural citation or allusion ! The
only supposition that seems admissible, and entirely
consistent with the facts, is the one already haz
arded — namely, that Loyola's Christianity, at the
time of his conversion, and until he had visited
Paris, had been drawn from no sources more copi
ous than the Texts, put at the bottom or around the
margin of the decorations of that Life of Christ
with which he had solaced his hours of pain, while
confined in the paternal castle.

But we have at length worked our way through
this picture-book Gospel ; and what next occurs is
of a less puerile character. In fact it displays the
experience of riper years, in the treatment of souls ;
and whether attributable to Loyola, or to his col
leagues, it is of another stamp.

In this supplementary part divers rules, applica
ble to the discrimination of spiritual symptoms, are
propounded, as indicating what is genuine and what
is spurious in piety. Among these rules this is one
• — never to deliberate upon the choice we may have
made, or are about to make, during the season of
spiritual desolation or lifelessness ; but only in hours
of consolation and joy. In hours of spiritual dis
tress, the soul is " urged on by the evil spirit, by
whose instigation nothing right is ever effected."
Seasons of desolation 'are appointed to us, as for
other reasons, so for this — that we may be made
intimately to feel " that it is not of our own

256 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

strength to acquire or retain the fervor of devotion,
the vehemence of love, the abundance of tears, or
any other inward consolation ; but that all these
things are the gratuitous gifts of God, which, if we
challenge them to ourselves as our own, we shall
incur the charge of pride and vain glory, not with
out seriously endangering our salvation." /

It has already been affirmed that Jesuitism, not
withstanding its vehement professions of subservi
ent obedience to the Vicar of Christ, hangs loose
upon Romanism. The Romish Church has well
understood this precarious submissiveness, and has
shown her mistrust of her obsequious minister ;
and the Society has, once and again, adhered to
its own course, with an almost open contumacy of
resistance. Loyola was gifted with a far-stretching
intellectual sight ; — or with what was equally avail
able for his guidance — a perfect intuition of the
qualities of things as related, whether essentially or
circumstantially, to the permanence of his own
scheme. That he felt as a principle, if he did not
foresee as a fact, the intrinsic independence of the
Society, may be gathered from indications which,
if they are not the most palpable, are yet not alto
gether recondite or imaginary. As much as this
may be inferred from the tone and style of certain
rules which he propounds, " to the end that we
may truly feel or think with the Orthodox Church."
Throughout these rules there is apparent an air of
concession made, from motives of prudence or cour
tesy, to the claims of an independent power. The
rules are conditions of peace3 or terms of friend

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 257

ship and co-operation, ratified and understood be
tween neighboring states.

The first of these rules enjoins that, putting out
of the way all judgment of one's own, our minds
should always be prepared and held ready to obey
the " true spouse of Christ, and our Holy Mother,
which is the Orthodox, Catholic, and Hierarchical
Church."

There is a difficulty in selecting English phrases
which may correctly convey the whole import of
the Latin phrases — and nothing more — laudare
convenit, laudare plurimum. In the recent English
translation of the Spiritual Exercises, these two
words are tamely translated, " it is proper to com
mend," " it is a fit thing to extol ;" that is to say,
the members of the Society, after having relin
quished all individual exercise of the reasoning
faculty in relation to things already determined by
the Church, should hold themselves ready, as often
as an occasion may arise, to speak in commenda
tory terms of such and such principles and practi
ces: — not indeed as if they themselves, on any
grounds of personal conviction, approved these
things ; for they might do so, or the contrary ; but
they had entered into a compact which bound them
so to receive, to commend, and to extol, whatever the
Church receives, and whatever it enjoins. That
this is the true value of the " convenit laudare" can
scarcely be doubted, when we find, as presently, to
what a length of intellectual submissiveness these
rules are carried.

It is, then, declared to be :< a fit thing" to extol or
commend, — "the customary confession of sins made

258 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to the priest, and the receiving1 the Eucharist, at the
least once every year ; better every week : — the
frequent hearing of Mass — the recitation of Church
hymns — long prayers in churches, or outside them
— and the observance of the canonical hours : — it
is fitting to extol highly — laudare plurimum — the
state of the religious, and to prefer virginity or celi
bacy to marriage. To approve the vows made by
the religious orders for the observance of chastity,
poverty, and perpetual obedience, along with other
works of perfection and supererogation. It is fit
ting to praise relics, the veneration and invocation
of the saints ; likewise the stations, pious pilgrim
ages, indulgences, jubilees, the candles used to be
lighted in churches, and other similar helps to our
piety and devotion. It is fitting to extol the use
of abstinences and fasts, as those of Lent, &c., and
all those voluntary afflictions called penances, as
well the external as the internal. Moreover, to
praise the construction of churches, and their orna
ments ; also images, as most rightfully demanding
to be venerated on behalf of what they represent.
To uphold or sustain all the precepts of the Church,
nor to impugn them in any manner ; but, on the
contrary, to be ready to defend them by reasons
drawn from all sources against those who do im
pugn them. It is fitting to approve zealously the
decrees, traditions, rites, and manners (lives) of the
Fathers, as well as superiors. And, although there
be not found everywhere that pureness of manners
which ought to be ; yet is it of ill consequence,
either in public preaching or in converse with the
people, to inveigh against them, inasmuch as the

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 259

doing- so breeds damage and scandals, lather than
leads to amendment or any utility ; and so that noth
ing ensues but exasperation of the people against prin
ces and pastors, and a blaming of them. Such in
vectives are therefore to be repressed. Nevertheless,
while it is of mischievous tendency so to call rulers
in question before the people, and in their absence,
yet is it well privately to admonish those who, if
willing, are able to apply a remedy to the evil. It
is fitting to put the highest value upon the sacred
doctrine as well that which is termed the positive
as the scholastic ; for as it was the aim of the an
cient holy doctors, such as Jerome, Augustine,
Gregory, and others, to stir up men's minds to the
love and worship of God, so is it the peculiar office
of the blessed Thomas, of Bonaventura, of the
master of the sentences, and of other more recent
theologians, to lay down and define more exactly
the dogmas necessary to salvation in a manner
suited to their own times and to ours, and proper
for the refutation of heresies ; these later doctors
not only being endued with knowledge of Holy
Scripture, but being aided by the writings of the
ancient authors, as well as by the influx of the di
vine light, and availing themselves also of the de
crees of councils, and various constitutions of Holy
Church, much to our advantage. It is a practice
to be blamed and avoided, that of instituting com
parisons between living persons, even of the high
est merit, and the saints and the blessed ; as to say
of such a one that he is more learned than Augus
tine, that he is another St. Francis, that he is a
match for Paul in sanctity, or the like."

260 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The thirteenth of these rules should have taken
the place of the first, or of the second, inasmuch as
it determines in the clearest manner the value and
meaning of all the rest: — let it then be listened to:
*'Iri order that we may be altogether in conformity
with the Catholic Church, and of the same mind,
we should hold ourselves ready, if in any instance
she has pronounced that to be black, which to our
eyes appears white, to declare that it is so. For it
is^undoubtedly to be believed that the spirit of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the spirit of the Orthodox
Church, his spouse, is the same, and by which spirit
we are governed and guided to salvation. Nor can
we question that it is the same God who, of old,
gave forth the precepts of the Decalogue, who at this
present time instructs and governs the hierarchial
church."

When mute submission is professed to the decis
ions of the Church on points of doctrine, nothing
more is tendered than the surrender or abeyance of
the opinion of an individual, to what is regarded as
an authority more valid or trustworthy than can
be any individual judgment. But something alto
gether different must be intended when the indi
vidual pledges himself to declare, against the un
changed and unchangeable evidence of his senses,
that white is black. There is much meaning in the
promise so to pronounce white to be black ; but a
profession of readiness to believe it would be devoid
— we should not say of sincerity or honesty, but —
of all intelligible import. No sense whatever could
be assigned to the words in which such a promise
might be conveyed. Here, then, we find what is

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 261

the value of the Jesuit profession of accordance with
the Romish Church : it is an engagement in all
cases to affirm, after the Church ; — as to personal
convictions they are not pledged or implied. The
remaining rules, the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th,
seem to have been subjoined at a later time, and
when it had been found necessary to define the
course which the Society, in discharging its public
functions, should observe so as to steer clear of in
conveniences and blame in relation to the agitated
questions of predestination, free will, faith, effica-
cious grace, and the pure love of God. It was the
policy of the Society to hold itself always to a path
where it should be as little as possible committed
to any specific mode of teaching which the Church
might perhaps, at some future time, explicitly con
demn.

The Spiritual Exercises, we have said, should not
be thought of as a book, but as a method. If it
were regarded as a literary work, scarcely could it
pretend to merits of any kind : as to the mass of it,
it is mindless, vapid, jejune, frivolous. But, as a
method, it has proved itself to be of great efficiency
for the end it has in view. This end, however, we
must not allow to be identical with a genuine reno
vation of the mind and affections, or a turning of the
soul from vice to virtue, either in a scriptural or in
a philosophical sense : — it cannot be so allowed, and
for reasons precisely analogous to those which im
pel us to resent the pretensions of the quack, who

262 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

engages, for a stipulated fee, and in such a time, to
cure any and every disease, how inveterate or ma
lignant soever, by means of a certain number of his
boxes or phials. The Jesuit Society has manifestly
outstepped the limits of discretion on this ground.
Certainly these are not the times when it will be
easily granted that the inmates of a penitentiary,
promiscuously taken, will infallibly be restored, not
merely to outward good behavior, but to inward
moral health, and be filled with all heavenly graces,
by a twenty-eight days' course of meditation in a
dark chamber !

Nor can it be reasonably demanded of us to grant
that these Exercises, even in those cases in which
the novice is the most favorably disposed toward
whatever is holy, can be serviceable, considered as
an initiation in Christian principles. This cannot
be pretended, for, as to the broad surface of Christian
doctrine — in whatever way the text of the New
Testament may be interpreted — this book takes no
account of it whatever. The author seems not to
be cognizant of more than two or three articles of
Christian belief. The novice is led or driven along
a path that has been fenced high on either hand :
he is permitted to see nothing of the country across
which this blind passage is winding its course. So
much of Christianity as may be gleaned or picked
up from the isolated verses that may have been put
under a series of evangelic pictures, is the extent of
what maybe learned from the "Exercises of the four
weeks !" It cannot easily be believed that Loyola,
at the time when the Exercises were composed, had

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 263

himself advanced a step beyond these rudiments of
the Gospel history.

Nevertheless the Spiritual Exercises have been
extensively efficient as a method of religious disci
pline. The month's work in the cell, together with
the daily visits and instructions of the director, have
had their effect , and in truth, if among those whose
trembling foot touches the threshold of a retreat,
there have been some (there may have been many
such) whose minds were already quickened by pun
gent religious motives, whose consciences were in a
sensitive condition, and whose intentions were sin
cere — then indeed this method, or almost any other
in its stead.5 could not but take its effect, and would
set the mind and dispositions in some form of fervid
devotion.

But the effect of such a course of discipline, or of
any other, will bear proportion, in a direct ratio, to
the magnitude of the foreseen result ; or to the im
port of some ulterior consequence. Among those
who in a course of time have submitted themselves
to this training, the larger number, and certainly
the larger portion of those upon whom it has pro
duced any lasting effect, have entered upon it with
no indistinct forethought of what would be— of what
they wished to be — the next procedure, namely,
their entrance upon the probationary course of a
noviciate ; and then in due order, their taking the
vows, their abjuration of everything earthly, and
the commencement of a course of life awful in the
view of those who are regarding it in perspective,
and from a distance. The Spiritual Exercises open
this path to the conscious victim ; and they take

264 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

hold of a spirit already awe-stricken and tormented
with that indecision which precedes an act which
is far more terrible than would be a suicide.

Does candor compel us to believe that those who
enter a Jesuit house of retreat do not even dream
of any such issue as this ; or that the studied re
serve of the director does really avail to preclude the
entrance of any such supposition ? It is not with
out amazement that one finds instructions in the
Directorium, which, except in one instance in a
thousand, must be an utter mockery — and which
on the part of the director, must imply a shameless
imposition. The superintendents of Jesuit colleges
and the rectors of houses are reminded that, while
it is a signal work of charity to induce as many
souls as possible to undergo this sanative pro
cess, yet that much caution and discretion are
needed in so conducting themselves toward any who
may incline to make trial of it, as not to engender
the remotest suspicion that anything is thought of
beyond the immediate refreshment or renovation of
the mind. No solicitude, no importunity is to be
indicated on the part of the director, and with spe
cial care is he to look to it that no ground of sur
mise be afforded, as if "we wished to draw the
person toward the religious state." Fit occasions
should be waited for, sudden opportunities are to
be embraced, and those occasions are to be seized
upon when the novice is perceived to be labor
ing with uneasy reflections upon his own spiritual
condition, or when he is depressed by worldly
anxieties, and by the ill-success of his secular em*
ployments. The director is to mention known in-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 265

stances of the happy effect of a month's discipline ;
but in the choice of such examples he is carefully
to abstain from any allusion to those who, in conse
quence of this training, have entered the Society, or
taken the vows of some other religious order. Those
rather are to be named who have returned to a secu
lar course of life, yet benefited by the discipline ;
otherwise it is more than probable that the party we
have in view may take the alarm, and draw off
from the Exercises.

These indications of an astute and tortuous, not
to say wily discretion, meet the eye at the outset,
and are apparent at every turn in the early history
of the Society. The most impartial eye involun
tarily notices this species of circuitous management
as the constant characteristic of the Jesuit Institute.
The Directorium, even if interpreted in the most
candid manner, and with a philosophic readiness to
allow to every institute the largest license which
its own principles seem to challenge for it, cannot
be regarded in any other light than as the germi
nating rudiment of all those ambiguous practices
which, in later times, have heaped opprobrium upon
the Society.

This manual of spiritual discipline enjoins the
functionaries who are to superintend the process,
when they have secured their victini (must we not
use the phrase ?) to seclude him from all intercourse
with his relatives — to interdict all correspondence,
and to cut him off from every earthly tie. He is
then told to throw himself jirst upon the divine
bounty, without reserve, willing to obey whatever^
may in the end appear to be the will of God as to
12

266 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

his future course of life, and next, to put himself
into the hands of his director, as the interpreter of
heaven toward him — opening his bosom to the in
spection of so skilful an eye, and attempting to con
ceal nothing from so kind and wise a friend. Most
strictly is he to obey the instructions of his director,
not allowing even a thought to wander from off
that path of meditation which is traced out for
every hour of each day. To relieve a little the
monotony of these exercises, a little reading may
be permitted ; but it is to be such only as the direc
tor shall appoint. No other books are to enter the
cell than the Breviary and Office of the Virgin, if
the person be a priest ; or he may be indulged with
a portion of Gerson, a passage from the Gospels, or
some select passages from the Lives of the Saints.
As to the Gospels, nothing is to be read at any time
beyond the passage in the " Mysteries of the Life
of Christ," appointed for the day and hour. To
these may be added, if needful, a passage from
Dionysius the Carthusian, or from the Confessions
of Augustine. A similar restraint is to be sub
mitted to as to anything written. The novice,
Confined to his cell, is to see only his director, and
one attendant, who ministers to his wants daily,
but who is forbidden to hold conversation with him
on any subject not relating to his food or personal
comfort. This attendant is carefully to report to
the director whatever occurs in these interviews.
In certain instances, and where it seems desirable
to invite the person exercised to a more free opening
of his mind, some discreet friend may be invited to
'visit him. An exact knowledge of human nature,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 267

together with a nice perception of what is fitting to
persons of every class, shows itself throughout
these instructions. All this knowledge of the heart,
all this perception of the occult peculiarities of in
dividual temperament, and all this practical wis
dom are brought to bear upon that which is con
fessedly the main end and intention of this system
of discipline — namely, the inducing those whom
the superiors may think fit to invite into the bosom
of the Society to surrender themselves — their earthly
well-being, their conscience, their intelligence, their
faith and hope — to its care, keeping, and service.
The Directorium exhibits the most intense anxiety
in digestmF'and expressing the instructions which
bear upon this one object.

It is not indiscriminately that such a pioposal as
that of entering the Society should be made : in
fact it is to those only whose personal fitness in
cludes qualities and conditions of no ordinary sort.
Of course no such invitation is to be given to any
who are bound to a course of life by ties which
cannot properly be broken ; as those of matrimony,
or rank, or office ; nor to any who are already
joined to some religious order. Nor to any is this
election to be propounded in whose temperament
there appears to be any levity, or inconstancy, or
whose propensities are ungovernable, or their dis
position malign, or who arc of an incorrigible
mould ; unless indeed, in any such instances, the
contrary indications of grace arc of an extraordi
nary kind. There must be manifested also a cor
dial desire in the party toward that course of life
which the Society propounds to him. Never must

268 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

any one who is reluctant be driven forward into it.
There are difficulties enough to contend with, even
where the affections are the most fervently set upon
this course : how much more when a hearty will is
wanting in the individual ! Unless the novice has
reached that third jnorlr of humility which consists
in an absolute indifference towards things earthly,
and a desire of nothing but that which God wills,
there is little room to look for a favorable issue.

That the issue should be favorable, in a large pro
portion of instances when thus carefully selected, is
natural and quite easy to be believed. As to the
result of a month's seclusion and discipline, under
the hand of a director, in the case of secular per
sons, who have no thought of entering the Society,
it is probably very nearly analogous to that produced
upon the general health by a month's release from
business at the sea-side. Men wishing and intend
ing to refresh their religious feelings, betake them
selves to one of these much-reputed spiritual hospi
tals : they give themselves up, heartily, to the far-
famed process, they submissively invite the physi
cian of souls to do his best for them — and they come
forth pretty well satisfied with the result. It would
be a matter of curious inquiry to learn what pro
portion of persons it is who are found willing to
submit themselves to the Spiritual Exercises a
second time, and a third.

But the meaning and value of this scheme of re
ligious training is to be estimated on another prin
ciple, if we are thinking of those who, in bending
their steps toward a house of the Society, do so Avith
the avowed or with the concealed purpose of conse-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 269

crating themselves to its service. This intention,
even though it amount to scarcely more than a
latent and slumbering wish — a wish from which the
mind recoils, if at any time it presents itself dis
tinctly — operates to enhance a hundred fold the
force of all those powers of working upon the im
agination and the feelings which the Exercises may
call into play.

It is the Jesuit scheme of life, with its infinite
and undefined ambition, and its tremendous condi
tions, which make the Spiritual Exercises what
they are found to be as an effective religious disci
pline. These eight and twenty days' meditations
might have been thrown into any one of a hundred
imaginable forms, each of which would have been
nearly equal to any other in efficiency — supposing
only that the conditions were the same. What \ve
have before us is a method of producing intensity,
which is rendered such by aforethought of its issue.
In protestant communities we see around us little or
nothing of the deepest emotions, except in rare and
individual instances ; and this deficiency of emotion
is easily accounted for, inasmuch as protestant in
stitutions do not include, nor do they allow, those
soul-stirring immolations, the contemplation and
practice of which generates intensity, and foments
it. and gathers it from the wide surface of society,
around certain visible centres. Protestant com
munions do not sanction these immolations, not
because earnest religious feeling is not in itself
good ; but because these monstrous devices for ob
taining and for cherishing it are unwarrantable ab
stractedly, and have been proved, by ample and

270 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

long-continued experiment, to be of pernicious ten
dency, and to be destructive of the diffused and
healthful influences 'of the Gospel upon society at
large : they cost too much.

The Spiritual Exercises of Loyola would prove
themselves to be nothing better than what they in
trinsically are — a vapid inanity, if separated from
those things which impart to them a terrible energy.
It is undoubtedly true, therefore, that, "bits and
particles of the Catholic system cannot be thus de
tached with impunity and incorporated with another
system."* If over against the Spiritual Exercises
we were to set up the ascetic principles — the mo
nastic vows, the practice of confession, the tremen
dous powers left in the hands of the priest, the awful
authority of the Church — then such exercises as
those of Loyola will at once be endowed with that
wonderful power and efficacy which is attributed to
them.

Yet even then, certain conditions would be
wanted which no monastic institute, founded on the
ancient ascetic principle, could furnish. These ob
solete orders were most of them anchoretic as well
as a-scetic. Each was a scheme of seclusion from
the world (more or less so) and as such each drew
toward itself — seldom the robust or enterprising
portion of the community ; ' but more often the lan
guid, the melancholic, the saturnine, the morose,
the debilitated, the disappointed, the misanthropic.
In direct contrariety to this, Jesuitism is a scheme
devised for taking a position upon the very ground
of the world's busiest movements. The Society has

* Wiseman's Preface.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES.

271

built for itself a fortress in the centre of a field
whereon a boundless secular ambition might seek
and find for itself the choicest opportunities. It was
a consequence, therefore, sure to follow, that it
should draw to itself—not the feeble, but the strong ;
not those who were sick of the world, but those who
are eager to play their parts in it. As to the weak,
the timid, and the inert, the Society has no cells for
such ; it turns them adrift as speedily as possible :
it is a gymnasium, not an infirmary ; and not only
does it insensibly draw into its vortex the most en
ergetic spirits, but it is constantly employed in cast
ing its own net over the waters of common life ; and
at each draught its rule is to take the good to itself,
and to cast the bad away.

The result then which has followed, is what is
natural and necessary : that which would be intense
even while the feebler elements of society only were
wrought upon, will become so in a tenfold propor
tion when it is the robust always upon which it
tries its powers.

Those energies, therefore, intellectual, moral and
political, which the society, in its brightest times,
has developed, are attributable, not to any intrinsic
properties attaching to the "Exercises" which are
its germ, but to those conditions of the Institute
which distinguish it from every other analogous
association. These points of- distinction result in
part from the more severe or thorough-going inter
pretation which was put by Loyola upon some of
the ancient ascetic doctrines ; in part, also, from a
politic relaxation of those very doctrines when
ever his ulterior purpose would not consist with a

272

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

rigid enforcement of them ; and in part, and chiefly,
from his having propounded an end that was strong
ly contrasted with that of the monastic orders ;—
an end distinctly practical, essentially secular, and
such as would invite and employ the most active
class of minds.

The three vows of initiation do not include either
any new principle, or any ostensible deviation from
existing and ancient practices ; but in their inter
pretation and in their consequences, as applied in a
manner so novel, two of them at least were innova
tions. But that which in the most important sense
has placed Jesuitism at an immeasurable distance
in advance of any monastic order, is the all-em
bracing interpretation put by Loyola's own hand
upon the vow and doctrine of obedience.

CHAPTER II.

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE.

THIS doctrine, so far as it applies to the under
standing and common sense of the individual, is
summarily expressed in the rule, lately cited, which
enjoins that, when the Church has pronounced
black to be white, we are so to think and speak,
notwithstanding the evidence of our senses to the
contrary. The same rule, moreover, is aptly and
intelligibly illustrated by Loyola's own exemplifica
tion of it, when he knowingly left himself to be
slaughtered by an incompetent medical attendant.
We find it, however, elaborately explained and ex
panded in a letter addressed by him to the Jesuits
of Portugal ; and to this letter, as on the whole
more significant than any other document of the
Institute, the most exact attention should be given.
The Jesuitism of the Jesuit Institute is condensed
within the compass of this notable letter. It was
addressed to the Portuguese houses at a late time
in Loyola's government of the Society ; that is to
say, in the year 1553, and only three years before
his death ; it may therefore be regarded, and in
this light it has always been regarded by the Soci
ety — as an authoritative expression of the founder's
matured judgment in relation to a principle to which
he himself and his colleagues attached paramount
12*

274 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

importance. The letter is addressed " To the
brethren of the Society of Jesus, who are in Portu
gal, grace and love eternal in Christ the Lord."

The General, after an exordium of customary
courtesy, reminds his brethren of what he had here
tofore and always taught them, namely, that OBE
DIENCE is the first of all Christian virtues, inasmuch
as it is from this that all other graces and excellences
take their rise. " Without regret," says he, " may
we see ourselves surpassed by other religious orders
in the fasts and vigils they observe, and in the se
verity of those practices which each, according to
its rule, piously adheres to. (but it is my wish to
see all those who within this Society devote them
selves to the service of God, distinguishing them
selves by a true and perfect obedience, an abdication
of will and judgment. I would that every true and
genuine son of the Society should be known by this
very mark, that he looks not to the person to whom
(immediately) he yields obedience ; but (always)
that he sees in him the Lord Christ, for whose sake
that obedience is rendered. Obedience is to be ren
dered to a Superior, not on account of his wisdom,
goodness, or any other such like qualities with
which he may be endowed ; but solely because he
is in God's place, and wields the authority of Him
who says — c they that hear you? &c. Nor, on the
other hand, is anything to be abated from this obe
dience on the ground that the Superior may be
wanting in prudence or discretion ; for he claims
it as superior, and as filling the place of Him whose
wisdom can never be at fault, and who will make
up whatever maybe wanting in his minister, whether

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 275

he lack probity, or any other virtue. Even as Christ
has expressly said, speaking of the Scribes and Phar
isees, they have sat in Moses' seat.''^)

This principle, thus generally enounced, is sus
tained by several citations of Scripture. Most ear
nestly does the General desire that his brethren
should understand and intimately feel this as true
— that the obedience which contents itself with the
exterior act of doing what has been enjoined is al
together an inferior and imperfect sort of obedience,
not worthy to be called a virtue — not until it has
reached that farther point at which the will of the
Superior is made one's own, and is so identical with
it, as that not only in the palpable effect it is the
same, but that, also in the inward affection, there is
a perfect agreement of sentiment. So that the two
— the Superior and the inferior will the same thing,
or will it not ; according to that word — " to obey is
better than sacrifice," or that saying of St. Gregory,
" in a sacrifice it is the flesh of another that is im
molated ; in obedience it is our own will ;" and so
much the more as this part of our nature has dig
nity and importance, is the immolation of it of
great price.

*. /' Any deviation from the will and injunction of
the Superior on the pretext which is so specious —
of going beyond what is commanded, in things ab
stractedly good and commendable, is nevertheless
to be accounted a disobedience, prompted by an er
roneous principle, and fraught with danger. Noth
ing is acceptable to God which is not strictly con
formable to the mind and intention of him who is
in God's place toward ourselves^ Your own will

276 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

lay down — freely return to your Creator, through
his ministers, that liberty with which he has en
dowed you ; dedicate it to Him. Think it no mean
fruit of that free will which you have received from
Him, if it enables you, by obedience, to return it
entire to Him. In doing so you do not lose it — you
augment and bring it to perfection. In conforming
yourselves absolutely to the Divine will, as inter
preted to you by him who stands in God's place to
ward you, you are certain that all your volitions are
in harmony with the most sure rules of rectitude.
Take care that you never attempt to bend or mould
the will of your Superior, which you should esteem
as the will of God, to your own will. This is to in
vert the order of the divine wisdom ; — it is an en
deavor to bring the divine will into conformity with
your own. How are those blinded by self-love who,
while thinking themselves obedient, go about by some
show of reason to bring the Superior to will what
they will ! ('On the contrary, whoever would immo
late himself without reserve to God, must offer to
Him, not his will merely, but his intelligence (or
understanding) also, which is the third and higher
grade of obedience ; so that he not only wills what
the Superior wills, but thinks as he thinks, submit
ting to him his own judgment so far as it is possible
for a devoted will to bend the intellect.''^

We should especially notice Loyola's interpreta
tion of the mental constitution of man, as related to
his doctrine of obedience : he says — " Albeit the in
tellect is not endowed with that sort or degree, of
liberty which attaches to the will, and is in its na
ture impelled to yield assent to that which seems to

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 277

it to wear the appearance of truth, yet are there many
occasions on which, as the evidence of truth is not
absolutely irresistible, the will may throw its pre
ponderating weight into this scale or the other.
Now in all such instances, he who professes the
doctrine of obedience is bound to incline his judg
ment to that of his Superior."

It is on this principle that the Society builds its
practice ; for it teaches that when, in the judgment
of the inferior, the evidence of truth preponderates
on this side, or on that, if the Superior, not as su
perior, but as doctor or teacher, declares there to be
a probability, how small soever, that the balance of
evidence 'may be on the other side, then the case is
brought within those conditions under which the
will may throw its weight into the scale, on either
side, and therefore may overbear the evidence of
truth.

In a word, if obedience be a sort of holocaust, in
which the entire man, without withholding any
thing, offers himself to his Creator and Lord, by the
hand of his ministers, in the fires of love — if it be
an entire renunciation of oneself, in which the re
ligious freely .relinquishes all right in, and over him
self, so that the divine Providence, by the hand of
the Superior, governs and possesses him, it thence
follows, unquestionably, that obedience includes, not
merely the execution of commands, nor that com
pliance of the will which renders the outward act
properly spontaneous, but also a resignation of the
judgment ; so that whatever the Superior commands
and believes should, to the inferior, seem right and

278 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

true — so far, as already said, as the will by its own
power is able to bend the understanding.

Well were it, says the General, if men could re
ceive this doctrine of obedience, of the mind and
understanding, agreeable as it is to God, and indis
pensable to those who live under religious obliga
tions. Among the celestial bodies the lesser yield
themselves to the influence of the greater, with a
perfect order and harmony ; and thus among men
should the inferiors allow themselves to be carried
forward by the will of the superior, so as that the
virtue of the upper may permeate the lower spheres ;
this can only be when the will and judgment of the
inferior entirely accords with the will and judgment
of the superior. "Lean not to your own under
standing," say the Scriptures ; and if in things of
this life it be the part of prudence in the opinion
of the wise, to submit our judgments to the di
rection of those wiser than ourselves, how much
more proper is this in things spiritual, and when
one has surrendered himself to a Superior, as stand
ing toward us in the place of God, and as the in
terpreter of the divine mind.

{"Apart from this submission of the intellect,
neither the compliance of the will, nor the obedi
ence of the outward act can be what it ought. J We
are so constituted as that the appetitive faculties
should follow the apprehensive faculties (that we
should desire and follow after those things which
the mind perceives to be desirable) ; nor can it be
but by a sort of force that the will continues long tc
follow where the judgment repugnates. A man
may for a while, from an ordinary feeling of com-

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 279

pliance, conform himself to what he thinks an un
reasonable behest ; but this sort of obedience has
nothing in it that is fixed and steady : it will fail
after a while, or at least in the perfection of obedi
ence which is shown in alacrity and readiness.
What alacrity can there be where the will and
mind (commander and commanded) are at vari
ance ? If one hesitates and doubts whether it be 4
desirable or not desirable to do what is commanded, |
there is no zeal, no celerity. That noble simplicity i
of a blind obedience is gone, when we allow our- •
selves to question whether that which is commanded
be right or wrong, and when perhaps we blame the
Superior who commands us to do what is not agree
able to us. Humility, too, is gone, for although on
one hand we obey, on the other (by exercising our
own judgment in the case) we set ourselves above
the Superior. And thus also all constancy, or firm
ness, on difficult occasions, is lost. In a word, all
the force and dignity of this virtue is thus lost ; and
in their place come pain, unquietness, sluggishness,
lassitude, murmurings, excuses, and those vices
which destroy all the price and merit of obedience.
" But an obedience perfect and acceptable to the
Lord, is shown in the first place, because in it is
consecrated to Him the most excellent and precious
part of the man (the intellect), and next, because
in this manner a living holocaust, grateful to the
Divine Majesty, is offered — the man retaining noth
ing of himself; and lastly, because the difficulty
of such a contest is great : — he who thus obeys
breaks, as it were, himself, for God, and runs coun
ter to that natural impulse, deep seated in every

280 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

bosom, and which impels every one to embrace and
pursue his own purpose (or desire). Hence it is,
that obedience, while it seems to be a perfection of
the will, rendering a man always prompt and ready
to yield to the nod of the Superior, yet should ex
tend, as we have said, to the intellect or under
standing, leading it to think as the Superior thinks ;
and thus all the powers of the will and of the mind
being in concord, there follows a quick and com
plete execution of the task.

" But it is asked, how is this virtue to be attained ?
There is nothing arduous for the humble — nothing
rough for the meek ; nor shall the divine grace and
aid be wanting to those who possess these virtues.
As helps in the endeavor to acquire this perfect
obedience, these three rules are to be kept in mind
^-first, not to see in the person of the Superior a
man, liable to errors and to miseries ; but Christ
himself, who is wisdom in perfection, goodness un
bounded, love infinite} who neither can be deceived,
nor is willing to deceive any. And inasmuch as
you are conscious that it is for the love of God that
you have yielded yourselves to the yoke of obedi
ence, so that the more surely, while following the
will of the Superior, you may follow the divine will,
doubt not that the Lord will continue to guide you
by means of those whom he has placed over you,
and thus lead you in the right path. Wherefore,
in the voice of the Superior, hear the voice of Christ ;
as says Paul in addressing the Colossians, &c., or
as says St. Bernard, &c.

" The second rule, the observance of which will
preclude any inward murmurings, or the tendency

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 281

to blame the Superior, is to cherish an affectionate
zeal, ready to fulfil any of his behests ; thus each
act of obedience, instead of being attended with
uneasiness, will yield you pleasure and joy.

" Lastly, a means easy and safe, of subjugating
the judgment, is that which was a habit with the
holy Fathers, — namely, to fix it in your mind that
whatever the Superior commands, is the order and
will of God himself; and as when you are required
to believe according to the Catholic faith, you bend
your whole will and mind to do so, in like manner
in bringing yourselves to perform the order — let it
be what it may — of the Superior, a certain blind im
pulse, of an eager will shall bear you forward, with
out giving space for inquiry. Thus did Abraham
obey when commanded to offer up his son; and
thus, in the times of the New Testament (i. e. un
der the Christian dispensation) did a holy Father
exercise this virtue, as recorded by Cassian. As for
instance, the abbot John, who inquired not whether
that which he was ordered to do was useful, or not :
but continued daily throughout a year, and with
great labor, to water the dead stump of a tree ; nor
did he ask even whether it was possible or not, as
when he applied his whole strength to effect the re
moval of a huge block of stone, to which the united
strength of many could have been unequal. This
sort of obedience has, in some cases, received the
divine approval by means of miracles. As not to
mention instances which yourselves are aware of,
that of St. Maur, a Benedictine, may be named,
who, when at the command of his Superior, he
walked into a lake, did not sink; or that of one

282 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

who, commanded by his Superior to bring him a
lioness, went and caught it, and brought it to him.
Such is the method of bringing the judgment into
subjection, and of approving, without hesitation,
every command of the Superior, not manifestly sin
ful, which holy men have observed, but which those
who desire to attain to a perfect obedience will im
itate.

" Nevertheless, if after all, something still pre
sents itself which is at variance with the decisions
of the Superior, you are not forbidden — having
sought guidance from the Lord — to mention it.
But that you may not be deceived by self-love, and
your private judgment, you are bound, both before
making such a representation and afterwards — not
merely to hold your mind in a state of even readi
ness to go on with, or to abandon, the affair in
question, but also to approve the decision of the
Superior, and to think it preferable to your own
opinion.

" That which has been said concerning obedience
applies, not merely to the conduct of individuals to
ward their immediate Superiors, but to that also of
the Rectors and local Superiors toward the Provin
cials, to that of the Provincials toward the General,
and to that of the General toward him whom God
has set over him — namely, the Lord's vicar on
earth. And it is thus that the gradation of orders
throughout is preserved ; as well as peace and
charity, without which neither our Society nor any
other community can maintain within itself a right
government ; and thus it is that the Divine Provi
dence orders all things easily — controlling the low-

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 283

est ranks by means of those next above them, these
by the higher, and leading all to accomplish His
own purposes. Such, no doubt, is the principle of
order in the angelic hierarchy — such among the
celestial bodies — such in every well constructed
polity on earth, and such, especially, is the eccle
siastical hierarchy, within which everything pro
ceeds from, and is related to, the one vicar of the
Lord Christ, where the movement originating at
the centre is communicated to the extremities. By
so much as this disposition of things is accurately
regarded, any system of government is good ; and,
on the contrary, negligence on this ground brings
with it, as every one sees, the heaviest evils to
human societies. Therefore it is, that, as God has
intrusted to me the care and ordering of this So
ciety, I am anxiously concerned that this virtue
(obedience) should be practised, and should flourish,
inasmuch as the well-being and safety of the Society
thereupon depend. Labor therefore with ardor, and
in hope of victory, thus to conquer yourselves, thus
to vanquish and subdue the loftiest and most diffi
cult part of yourselves — -your will and judgment ; so
that a true knowledge and love of God may lead
your souls to Him, and may, throughout the course
of your pilgrimage on earth, govern you, that you
and those whom you may aid by your example may
attain to eternal blessedness."

The doctrine of obedience (so called) as thus ex
pounded and enforced by Loyola, in this letter, is
the nucleus of the Society— it is the law of all its
laws, and the guiding principle of its administration.
Abstractedly, and even as expressed in the most

284 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

extravagant manner, the doctrine was not new
among the religious orders ; in truth Loyola might,
to a far greater extent than he has attempted it,
have cited passages from the writings of the monas
tic founders, falling little short, if at all, of his own
tremendous consistency. The difference between
him and his predecessors, on this ground, is less in
language and tone than in the practical bearing of
the doctrine. The obsequious St. Maur of a mon
astery might well be left, by the wide world, to
water stumps through the year, or alternately to
dig holes, and to fill them again, in the monastery
garden, year after year. The abjectness of this
obedience was quite in harmony with the inanity
of the system of which it was a part, and to which
it was confined. The good abbot, and his good
monks (let us now think of them as good) and
their occupations, and their round of prayers, were,
one and all, well cemented together by a doctrine
of utter passivity, such as we have just heard Lo
yola enforcing. The open world was little, if at
all, affected by the existence, within monastery
walls, of monastery virtues, or of ascetic absurdi-
tiec. And, as those of the religious orders which,
through laxity of rule, or from principle and prac
tice, diffused themselves throughout society, they
left behind them, in so doing, the most characteris
tic of the monastic virtues, and lost influence pro
portionately.

But this same principle of unreasoning and un
scrupulous subserviency to the will of a Superior,
how different a thing does it become when it is
lifted into the place of sovereign importance in a

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 285

Society that has been constituted for the very pur
pose of laying" an ambitious hand upon the things
of the world, and of fixing itself upon every human
interest, with an unrelenting grasp !

The Jesuit Society has not hesitated to signalize
its doctrine of obedience, as the germ and the vital
principle of its Institute ; and in the Constitutions
the most extreme positions that are assumed in the
LETTER, are firmly maintained, and lucidly ex
pounded with illustrations the most apt and forcible.
The way in which this master principle has been
expanded and explained by Jesuit writers of a later
we have nothing now to do with : it is Jesuitism, time
such as its Founder made arid left it, that is our
subject. When the time comes that this scheme
shall have fallen into its place on the page of history,
and is no longer regarded either with favor, preju
dice, or alarm, the " Letter on Obedience" will be
read as a sample, nowhere to be matched, of har
monious incoherence, and of refined absurdity.
Loyola's was a mind of exquisite subtilty, but
wholly wanting in the philosophic faculty of ab
straction ; and hence it is that we may exonerate
him from the charge of designedly going about to
establish his Society upon principles which he knew
to be false and vicious. In fact, these principles
were, in the last degree, false and immoral ; but at
the point of view whence he looked upon them —
foreshortened from the low level of his own moral
standing, he saw none of their contrarieties ; he
saw only their adaptation to a special end.

The most obvious of the objections to which this
Letter is liable, is the outrageous misuse, which is

286 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

made throughout it, of the leading term — OBE
DIENCE. The Jesuit is taught that he is to yield
himself to the will of his superior — perinde cadaver ;
and because the idea of a corpse is naturally asso
ciated with a recollection of the faculties and powers
that had belonged to the living man, the absurdity
of attributing to the lifeless body a quality which
could attach only to the man, is a little veiled from
our view. Nor can mischief arise from the illusion,
if it belong only to a loose metaphoric style ; but
when it comes to be worked up, in a stringent form,
as a rule of practice, the enormity of the sophism
reaches a pitch beyond all power of estimation. To
talk of the obedience of a staff in the hand, or of the
obedience of a corpse, is a sort of fantastic nonsense,
which would be quite undeserving of criticism, if it
had not long and extensively been employed in sus
taining a pernicious practice.

Loyola, who had conceived the idea of a factitious
condition of the moral and intellectual man, suited
to his purposes, could find no term fitly conveying
that idea, simply because the condition itself being
monstrous and contradictory, it has had no name
assigned it in any language: it is a nihility, equally
impracticable, and inconceivable ; it is a triangle of
four sides. Nevertheless a moral term must needs
be selected, and Loyola, himself deluded, more than
intending to delude, called his chimera — OBE
DIENCE.

By a license of speech — pardonable in cases where
no consequences result from it — we employ the word
so improperly as to say that the sculptor's chisel
obeys his hand ; but it would be an insufferable

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 287

affectation to use the abstract term obedience, in
such an instance, as if the tool were consciously
fraught with a moral quality. Nor may we stretch
the proprieties of speech so far, as to apply the ab
stract term even to the hand of the artist: the
hand, it is true, obeys the mind : but how jejune
would it be to commend the hand for its obedience ;
and scarcely less so to speak of the obedience of a
well-trained horse ; although, by an admissible ana
logy, we say he obeys the hand and leg of his rider.
The fiery, yet obsequious animal, while yielding
himself to the will of his rider, knows nothing of
obedience, because his nature does not include that
moral liberty which is the source and soul of the
virtue so named.

The very phrase — passive obedience, is a pedan
tic solecism, which has been tolerated too long; and
when it is attempted to define and describe this
obedience, as that of a corpse, or of a walking-stick,
then the outrage so committed upon language, and
upon common sense, is beyond endurance. The
same peremptory objection holds good against every
attempt, under shelter of a variation in the terms,
to give currency to the like absurdity. " Uncon
ditional obedience" — "obedience — as a holocaust
of the intellect, as well as of the will," and the like,
are phrases utterly absurd in philosophy, and of per
nicious import in morals : with equal propriety might
we commend the devotion of a zealous messenger
who, before he set out on his destined journey,
should amputate his feet, and offer them to his em
ployer, as evidence of his willingness to acquit him
self of his task !

288 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The base obsequiousness of a debauched mind
may indeed impel an inferior to offer to his master
what is called — " passive obedience ;" and a recip
rocal baseness in the master, or his ignorance, may
induce him to accept, and to avail himself of, so
nefarious a tender. But it is manifest that he who
yields to a being like himself that which the Lord
of all refuses to accept, is devoid of a due sense of
the nature and grounds of moral obligation.

Loyola did not violate the proprieties of language
until after he had, within his own mind, misappre
hended and distorted every notion of morality and
religion. What it was which he needed in the
agents who were to give effect to his polity, he saw
clearly enough; but he did not see that this condi
tion was, in the sense in which he thought of it, a
thing impossible ; and that, so far as it might, in
any sense, be possible and practicable, it is fatal to
the conscience ; and not less so to the understand
ing. It may be said that a man who freely enters
a community is free, in doing so, to make over, or
to mortgage, as well his bodily agencies as his men
tal powers to its service, receiving in return what
he is contented to regard as an equivalent : if we
grant this, and it can be conceded only in a sense
strictly limited, it can never be conceded that a man
is at liberty to sell his soul to another. A selling
of the soul, whether it be the entire surrender of
present and future wellbeing, or imply only what is
indeed less tremendous, but not less immoral — a
consenting to the dedication of some one or more of
the faculties of our moral and intellectual constitu
tion, — is a transaction which nothing can warrant.

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 289

If suicide be a crime — and who but the atheist
questions this ? — so would be the amputation of a
limb, for no surgical reason ; and so would it be a
crime, and a frightful impiety, to swallow a diug
for the purpose of effecting a paralysis of one side,
or the extinction of a sense — of sight or of hearing.
But is not man's individual mind and conscience,
with its involuntary convictions of truth and virtue,
a faculty, and an element of human nature ? is not
the understanding — is not the intuition of first prin
ciples, an ingredient of our nature ? is not the free
dom of the will a sacred bestowment, which every
responsible being has received from his Maker ?
What shall a man accept in exchange, either for his
soul, or for any one of its elementary prerogatives ?
Neither his soul, nor any of its powers, is really at
his disposal ; for not only are these powers, in
themselves, beyond all price ; but if a price could
be adduced that should be their equivalent, in
whole or in part, the offer could not be listened
to — the proposal is a blasphemy ; and it is a
blasphemy in the intention, notwithstanding that
such an intention could never actually be carried
out.

It is on this ground, apparently, that Loyola de
luded himself so strangely, and thus led his Society,
unconsciously into, and left it in the deepest quag
mire of religious perversion.

His mind was penetrating, but, as we have said,
not philosophic : the Letter before us exhibits a pro
found adroitness in the management of human na
ture ; but not the clearness or straightforwardness
of a soundly constituted understanding. He does
13

290 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

not seem at all alive, either to the immorality of the
scheme he was digesting — for he insinuates no apol
ogy for it — nor to the illusory quality of the transfer
that is made when it is attempted to buy and to
sell individual conscience and intellect. The most
obvious truths on this ground, he did not recognize ;
such as that the human soul may be lost, but that
it cannot either be sold, or be made a gift of to
another : that conscience may be bound, or may be
slaughtered, but cannot be transferred to another's
keeping. He did not know that moral responsi
bility, instead of being shifted entirely from one to
another, or instead of being shared between two,
each taking a half, or a proportion, is doubled when
ever it is attempted to be transferred, or to be de
posited, or to be pawned.

An utter forgetfulness of these first principles of
morals — or an entire ignorance of them, an igno
rance chargeable in great measure upon the system
under which Loyola had been trained, vitiates the
Jesuite Institute throughout, and shows itself por
tentously in the " Letter on Obedience." Need it be
proved that no man can require of another, and
that none can render or promise to another, that
which God himself neither requires, nor will accept
from his intelligent creatures ? Spiritual authority
on earth, even if it were indisputably sanctioned,
surely can never surpass in its requirements the
powers and requirements of Heaven. Shall the
vicar extort that which the principal would reject,
if offered to himself? We may be certain that it is
not Christ — the rightful " bishop of souls," but that
it must be the tyrant of this world, who is used to

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 291

ask from men what is not theirs to give — their con
sciences.

Whatever mystery may attach to the moral sys
tem under which we are placed, this at least is clear,
that the Creator, rather than resume, or recall, his
gifts of intellect, conscience, and free will, leaves
these faculties, in the individual, and in the race, to
run — when misdirected — to the most awful extents
of mischief. Men, endowed with understanding,
and with a moral sense, are in no instances saved
from the fatal consequences of a misuse of these en
dowments, by a resumption of them. And thus
too, within the sacred and narrower precincts of that
spiritual economy of which the Church is the scene,
neither the perpetuity of truth, nor the purity of
morals, is secured by any divine interposition, such
as might interfere with the natural liberty of the
human mind ; therefore it is that the Church, not
less than the world, has exhibited in its history,
from age to age, the multifarious products of erring
intelligence, and of wild free will.

How striking — how appalling even, is the con
trast that presents itself when Loyola's doctrine of
corpse-like obedience is compared with the tone, the
style, and the intention of God's dealing with men,
as displayed in the Scriptures, from first to last !
While contemplating this contrast, one is compelled
to say — these two styles must issue from different,
or rather from antagonist sources. Throughout
the inspired volume men are persuaded, they are
reasoned with, they are entreated : — they are urged,
they are threatened, they are encouraged and in
vited ; but never is a blind submission of the Intel-

292 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

lect asked for ; never does authority set its foot upon
reason. Illumination, guidance, right influence, are
promised to those who would be led heavenward ;
for which promise there could be no room if that
kind of compulsion were employed which infringes
the individual liberty of man. If the " Father of
Spirits" dealt with human spirits as Jesuitism deals
with its ministers, the use and meaning of three
fourths of the Bible would be superseded ; nay, a
single page might contain all that could have any
meaning in the message of God to men.

Shocking is this contrast ; and the more so the
more one considers it. Instead of the blind passiv
ity of a corpse, or the mechanical subserviency of a
tool, that which God himself invites, and that in
which he will take pleasure, is the uncompelled,
undamaged duty, love, and service of the entire
man: the mind, informed, not "immolated," not
crushed, but nobly consenting to do its part in that
service which is "perfect freedom." That which
heaven accepts must come from the healthful ener
gies of the heart and soul. Mulcted of any faculty,
abridged in any degree of its liberty, maimed,
shackled, palsied, the "living sacrifice," if it might
be a fit offering for the altar of a demon, could
never be a "holocaust" which the wise and be
nignant Creator would regard as an acceptable
oblation.

It is not without a feeling of horror that the
mind endeavors distinctly to bring before it an idea
of that breaking down of the individual will and
mind which Loyola exacts from his fellow-men.
One stands aghast at the thought of such an ab-

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 293

negation of the moral and intellectual faculties,
when effected upon a large scale. What, it may
be asked, would a society most resemble, the mem
bers of which should actually be brought down to
the level of Jesuit obedience? One involuntarily
thinks of the condition of hosts of spirits subjected
to the depotism of the infernal world — the myriad
yielding a blind submission to the unreasoning ca
prices of the one ! — hosts of living " corpses" — liv
ing only to be conscious of their loss of whatever
could render individual existence, even apart from
positive sufferings, desirable ! In such a conception
it is supposed that the innate perception of the dif
ference between good and evil is uprooted from the
soul ; or, if not wholly lost and forgotten, yet thrown
off, as an encumbrance, by beings who can no
longer follow its impulses, and whose entire well-
being has passed into another's hands ! If one
were to imagine a course of discipline — a training
on earth, such as might be most fit to prepare hu
man spirits for taking their place within the tre
mendous machinery of the nether world, the school
ing we must think of could not differ essentially
from that which Loyola devised for his Society, and
of which he gives the rudiments in this epistle.

The constitution of the human mind — a consti
tution which we may be quite sure no Jesuit " Con
stitutions" can alter, utterly forbids that any such
state of the will and intellect should come into ex
istence as that which Loyola allowed himself to
imagine as possible, and which he speaks of as
good. His "perfect obedience" could no more be
realized than can a mathematical contradiction be

294 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

brought into existence. What would be the pro
cess in an instance coming strictly within the mean
ing of the rule he lays down ? Let the case be
stated. " Three and three are seven," says the su
perior. — " I think them only six." " Well, let us
then take an equation somewhat less immediately
resolvable by mere intuition. 342 times 848 are
equal to 290,017." " I must take one from this sum
according to my calculation of the numbers."
" Your calculation is not what is now in question ;
for first you are to affirm, as bound by your oath
of obedience, that the sum is what 7 declare it to
be ; and more than this, you are required to believe
it, with an l inward conviction' as full and sincere
as if you knew it to be true, instead of knowing it
to be false."

" This is that immolation of the intellect to which
you have solemnly pledged yourself. If, however,
you find a difficulty in so doing, and if reason still
revolts, the Society has provided a means of escape
for you, or at least a palliative ; and you are bound
to avail yourself of it :— it is this.— If ten persons
sit down to make a calculation, such as that above-
mentioned, one of the number will probably bring
out a result differing from that of his nine com
panions ; and then it must be granted that some
degree of probability attaches to the supposition
that this one is right, and that the nine are wrong.
Now this probability, how small soever it may be,
affords ground enough for you to rest your faith
upon, when it is offered to you by your superior, as
a sufficient reason for assenting to the product
which he declares to be correct. You have vowed

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 295

obedience ; and not merely that of the outward act,
which is of little value, and possesses no merit, but
that also of the conscience and of the understand
ing ; and this all-comprehensive immolation obliges
you to yield your assent to any degree of probability,
how small soever it may be, when it is sustained
by the affirmation of your superior."

What must be the next consequence, after such a
submission of the reason as is here demanded, has
been yielded ? It will be different according to the
structure of the individual mind. Men, clear
sighted and of sound understanding, if, from any
motive, such have been induced to play their part
within a community which exacts of them this sort
of " perfect obedience" will, from the first, thorough
ly have understood what is the interpretation which
they must put upon Loyola's verbiage about the
<l immolation of the intellect." To them this " holo
caust" means — what is very simple, and, what, in a
certain condition of the moral sense, may be very
easy too — namely, the never uttering their convic
tions ; and an habitual promptness (resting upon
some fine theory of moral obligation) always to
utter the contrary. Did Loyola believe that the
clear-headed members of his Society would, at his
bidding, obliterate their understandings? Did he
actually think that the Epistle to the Jesuits of
Portugal would induce such 'men to attempt it ?

As to minds of inferior quality, down to the low
est grade, such — some sooner and some later in
their course — some with more, and some with less
damage to the moral sense — would forge them
selves forward on to a sand-bank as far as possible

296 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

beyond the range of the lashings of conscience and
the buffettings of reason. Much may be done by a
confused, an infirm, arid a perverted mind, when
impelled by an urgent motive of interest, in botch
ing up a cloak, within which contradictions of all
kinds, rational and moral, may be bound about and
held together. None of these contradictions make
themselves heard within : all are stifled by the
pressure which envelops them all !

But there are souls — and there are some always,
if not many at any one time— of a stamp as unlike
the first-named sort as the second. Good men they
are, and perhaps they may be Christian heroes too
— men who might have been great, if greatness (in
the true sense of the word) did not exclude the ad-
_ mixture of anything that is illusory or factitious.
Their whole existence is a dream — a dream not to
be broken in upon by logic, spoken never so loudly.

But a question of this sort may fairly be put by
the advocates of the Jesuit Society : — " If, indeed,
our principles, and if the very rudiments of our
Institute are, as you allege, out of harmony with
nature — if they are at variance with Christianity,
and are incompatible with the healthful exercise,
either of the reason or the moral faculties, how is
it that the Society has produced, and that it has
had in its service, men — more than a few, whose
virtue, piety, benevolence, and self-denying zeal,
have commanded the admiration even of our ene
mies ?"

An answer to this well-grounded question, and
an answer compatible with our allegations, is not
far to fetch.

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 297

Loyola has prepared a labyrinth, through which
no human foot can wind its way in a line approv-
able at once to right reason, and to Christian prin
ciples. But a labyrinth, how intricate soever, need
not perplex those who fly. There is an intensity
of the interior life which carries him to whom it
belongs clear over all embarrassments, which bears
him aloft over the most rugged ground. Snares —
pitfalls — dangerous ravines, precipitous paths, are
all alike to him who, on the wings of habitual
ecstasy, soars through the air ! At a difficult pass,
where an unimpassioned but conscientious spirit is
staggered and swoons, and where the unimpassioned
and the unconscientious press on, and are lost,
the impassioned — the fervent, take to their pinions,
and alight beyond the danger — unharmed ! Minds
thus elastic and buoyant do in fact retain their
virtue and their integrity in the midst of systems
that must be fatal to the moral existence of all but
themselves. It is in truth a characteristic of such
systems, that is to say, of institutions essentially
vicious, to bring together, and to hold in juxta
position the most extreme samples of lofty virtue
and of utter depravity. The spectacle exhibited
by such systems resembles what one should see in
visiting a spot over which a mortal miasma broods ;
and where one should find, amid cadaverous human
beings, two or three of the- gods — blooming with
immortal health !

There is reason to believe, notwithstanding the

profound subtilty of his intellect, that Loyola's own

temperament was of this very kind. Undoubtedly

it was so, unless the whole of his personal history

13*

298 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

is a fabrication ! It is quite credible that amid the
perpetual glare of his burning thoughts, and the
frequent blazings up of ecstasy upon ecstasy, he
failed to discern, not only the monstrous incongrui
ties, but the immortal tendency of the scheme he
was digesting. Of this tendency he had made no
personal experiment. His own position was like
that of a man who, from a hill top, looks down on
all sides upon what seems an unbroken surface af
fording a safe and easy descent ; but those whom
he commands to descend find themselves soon upon
the brink of precipices. In his own habitual state
of mind Loyola might imagine a something which
he could think of as real and possible, answering to
his idea of a holocaust of the intellect, and an im
molation of the will. Perhaps an unconfessed pre
sentiment of failure held him back from personally
making an experiment of the virtue which he so
highly commended.

Certain it is, and the fact is very noticeable, that,
as often as the ONE AUTHORITY which he himself
recognized as supreme on earth, actually attempted
to countervail his own, or to thwart his purposes,
or to interfere with his administration, Loyola, in
stead of welcoming so fine an occasion for exhibit
ing, in the view of his inferiors throughout the
world, the edifying spectacle of the "holocaust,"
struggled, by all means of wily management arid
of epileptic vehemence, to divert that interference,
and to obtain a decision agreeable to his wishes !
The very fault he so pointedly condemns in others
— that of attempting to bring over a superior to our
mind and wish, and thus to contend with God, was

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 299

that which he himself constantly fell into when
the Vicar of Christ and the General of the Order
happened to be of opposite opinions! How fitly,
on these occasions — and they were not very infre
quent — might his own exhortations have been pealed
in his ears. St. Ignatius obey the nod of the Vicar
of Christ, or yield himself to the volitions of the
head of the church — perinde cadaver ! No such
thing ; or not so long as contumacious resistance
might by any means screen itself from rebuke by
prostrate humiliations. It is certain that the world
would have seen no " Society of Jesus" if its founder
had, in any such manner, thought himself bound
to regard consistency.

Gravely, and for the purpose of strengthening
them in the path of duty, Loyola tells his subal
terns that, just as they implicitly obey their supe
riors and rectors, so do the superiors obey the pro
vincials, and so the provincials the General, and so
does the General himself obey the sovereign pon
tiff! Alas! how largely must we draw upon our
residue of charitable ingenuity, before we can save
his reputation, in an instance so flagrant, from the
charge of impudent and conscious falsification !

Many of the Society have, no doubt, surpassed
its founder in honest fervor, in Christian integrity,
and in the unmixed intensity of their devout feel
ings. And it is these men that have held the rep
utation of the order afloat : it is these that have
stood in the breach when the citadel has sustained
an assault. The superiors and the provincials
having the means, at all times, of thoroughly know
ing the dispositions and the peculiar excellencies of

300 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

those under their control, have felt no difficulty in
assigning men to their fittest tasks : they have had
at their command heroes and martyrs : they have
also had base minions and tools : nor have they so
far wanted discretion as not to send the best men
on the best errands, and the worst on the worst.
Thus it has been that the Society has been able,
while doing its own work, in its own manner,
throughout Europe, to husband always a needful
amount of glory and bright fame, accruing from
the noble behavior of a few of its purer members.
These latter, happy enough in being contemptu
ously deemed by their superiors — good for nothing
but goodness, would be suffered, at once, to save
their own virtue, and to bring home from fields of
arduous service some superfluous sheaves of golden
reputation wherewith to replenish the exhausted
stock of the Society.

CHAPTER III.

THE CONSTITUTIONS.

MOST of those who might wish to acquaint
themselves with the rudimental principles of the
Jesuit Society, would willingly accomplish this task
in some mode less repulsive than that of a contin
uous perusal of the "Constitutions and Declara
tions." Such a perusal is not simply wearisome, as
must be, in any case, that of a vast body of regula
tions and instructions, not one of which takes any
broad bearing upon the welfare of mankind — but
it generates a feeling quite peculiar, and which is
positively painful. A melancholy sentiment and a
depression of the animal spirits is produced, resem
bling that which comes on when treading the cor
ridors and wards of an infirmary, or of an asylum,
or of a prison ; there is a fear, as when pursuing
the clue that is to guide our way through the mazes
of the catacombs. We are beset by objects that
impose dread, but that possess none of the charms
of sublimity. We are bewildered in a forest ; but
it is a forest leafless and lifeless.

Nevertheless, a re-action of the most agreeable
kind ensues as one proceeds ; for the reader awakes
to the comforting recollection, that this night-mare
of despotism is to him a dream only — that this
elaborate scheme of bondage of the mind, soul and

302 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

body — binds not him — that for him there is a means
of return from this region of living death ; and that
all his part in this stupendous mechanism of a fac
titious and monstrous existence is ended when he
has returned a cumbrous folio to its place on his
shelves !

A perusal of the Jesuit Constitutions produces an
impression, quite unlike what attends that of the
institutes and rules of the earlier religious orders.
Let Cassian be opened : — an intelligent reader of
this author is tempted forward, from page to page,
by a certain air of simplicity — by a homogeneous
imaginativeness, and by a moral harmony, pervad
ing the whole: — the book is recommended by a
style of picturesque and grotesque phraseology.
There is in it much of an amusing quaintness, and
of a grave absurdity and frivolity that tickle the
fancy. The monastic system plainly and honestly
declares its intention, and this intention is wholly,
or almost wholly, centred within itself-; and its pur
poses and aims are avowed in an intelligible man
ner. There is little of mystery, or none, attaching
to the monastic institutes, even when they affect
the most concealment.

But the Jesuit Institute, as embodied in the con
stitutions, is utterly destitute of every charm : it has
no embellishment : — there is nothing in or about it
that is in the least degree picturesque ; — nothing that
is quaint ; — nothing gracefully relaxed ; — nothing
belonging to the world of mixed sentiment and
imagination : all is stern — business-like — mechani
cal ; — and then, just in proportion as, in these insti
tutes, there is less of concealment, there is more of

THE CONSTITUTIONS.

303

mystery attaching to them. There is laid before
us an apparatus— vast enough for effecting the
greatest of those purposes which the ambition of
man has ever aimed at, or imagined ; and yet no
such purposes, and none but those to which such
an apparatus could never be fitly applied, and to
which it bears no proportion, are named or alluded
to — are intimated or avowed !

Then again, while the monastery was, for the
most part, the asylum of men whose withdrawal
from the duties and service of active life seldom in
volved any very serious loss to the world, the Jesuit
Institute is framed for no purpose more evidently,
than that of sifting the mass of society, so that it
may take to itself the choicest samples of energy,
intelligence, and devotedness. The one drift of the
Constitutions is the selection and careful discipline
of those who are to be the agents of the Society.
But if we ask in what labors are those carefully-
chosen instruments to be employed, we obtain no
answer which can be accepted as anything better
than an evasion. All is shrouded in mystery on this
ground.

Nor does it appear, nor can any solution of the
difficulty be gathered either from the Constitutions,
or from any other documentary source, what it was
which the Society offered to men of this order, whose
talents and acquirements would have secured to
them a course of splendid success in any path of
secular life, as an equivalent for the surrender, not
merely of its ordinary enjoyments, but of its rewards,
its honors, and its emoluments. If, as a sufficient
reply, we should be told that the highest and the

304 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

purest motives which Christianity inspires have at
all times secured to the Society the devoted services
of so large a number of accomplished men — if this
be all that is said, then we are left to balance a
most incredible supposition against an utterly insol
uble mystery ; and so to leave the question as we
found it. It is quite true that the pure motives of
Christian zeal have often availed, and that they do
avail for securing the best services of men who may
have been more or less fitted to fight their way in
secular employments, where no extraordinary sac
rifices of personal well-being are demanded of the
ministers of religion. But such are not the condi
tions of the problem now before us ; for we have to
consider the case of a band of men selected on ac
count of their natural ability, their personal energy,
and their practical address ; and then that upon
such men conditions are imposed, and from such
men sacrifices are demanded that must ever be
appalling to human nature. What then is the
compensation? In what species is the equivalent
counted out? From the documents of Jesuitism
no answer to these questions can by any means be
extracted.

Those pages of European history, on which the
name of the Jesuit Society meets the eye, might in
deed aid us in attempting to clear up these myste
ries. But from these later and indirect sources of
information we refrain. They must be appealed
to, if it shall appear that, neither from the " Consti
tutions," nor from the " Declarations," nor from any
other undisputed and original sources, is to be ob
tained any intelligible statement of those objects

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 305

and purposes of the Institute which might reasona
bly be regarded as proportionate to the preparations
and to the mechanism which this Institute exhibits
to our view.

On the threshold we are told that the object of
this Society is not merely (nor chiefly) the spiritual
good of its members ; but rather the salvation and
religious advancement of others. For securing
these ends it imposes on its members the solemn
obligation of three vows — the vow of obedience, the
vow of poverty, and the vow of chastity. The first
of these is to be understood as forbidding the reten
tion, by individuals, of any property or funds what
soever, to be employed or enjoyed personally or
privately ; as also the acceptance of the customary
fees for performance of the offices of religion ; or of
any salary rendered on any such account. This
law affects not merely individual members, but the
churches and houses of the order.

^y means however of an ingenious distinction
which we may be sure the Society would not be
long in finding, the possession and enjoyment of
property to an indefinite amount has been made to
consist with the stern profession of this vow. So
far from relaxing this obligation, every one, on being
admitted as a member, solemnly engages that he
will never consent to any modification of the rules
relating to poverty, unless it be such as may render
them more severe. All that comes, and which may
be accepted, must come from God, in the simple
form of alms, bestowed by the pious upon those who
are absolutely indigent.

Besides these three vows, to which all are subject,

306 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the professed members bind themselves by a fourth,
in which they promise absolute obedience to the
Pope, as the vicar of Christ ; a promise obliging
those who make it to go whithersoever the sovereign
pontiff may send them, and without demanding the
means of support ; or to undertake any affairs with
which he may charge them, relating to the worship
of God, or the interests of the Christian religion.

As to modes of living, that is to say, ascetic prac
tices, the Society enjoins arid imposes nothing ; it
would wish its members to live among other men,
as other men do ; yet allowing any, with the con
sent of their superiors, to adopt more severe rules.

The members of the Society are divided into four
classes, occupying so many stages of proficiency or
of dignity. The first and highest is that of those
who have bound themselves by ihefoiir vows, who
are priests, and who have regularly passed through
all the initiatory forms. They must be men of
approved and long-tried manners. These are the
" professed."

The second class includes those called coadjutors,
devoted to the service of God in things either spirit
ual or temporal ; they have passed the initiatory
forms, and have taken the three vows — not the
fourth.

The third class is that of scholars — or those youths
in the Jesuit schools, in whom talents and gifts or
special qualities have probably been descried, fitting
them for the service of the Society. Before admis
sion into this class they are to take the three vows,
and to bind themselves by an explicit promise to
enter into its service if so required. Let it be noted

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 307

that, while on the one side, an obligation is imposed,
on the other none is accepted.

The fourth class embraces those who are retained
in a sort of probationary condition, and are em
ployed in such services as they may seem the best
adapted for, and until the Society shall determine
to which of the preceding three classes they should
be assigned. The ordinary time of the noviciate
is two years, which may be curtailed or prolonged
at the discretion of the superior. The Society will
accept no divided affection ; it must command its
members in the most absolute mariner, and there
fore it exacts of them, not merely a relinquish merit
of all personal interests, civil rights, and ecclesias
tical benefices, but a plenary renunciation of every
tic of kindred : this indeed had been the rule and
practice of the ancient monastic communities, but
in the Jesuit institute it is carried out in the most
rigorous manner. The novice consents thus to cut
himself off from " the flesh," and to put himself also,
without conditions, into the hands of all around
him, to make such reports of him as they may please
to the superior : in retaliation he pledges himself,
in like manner, to act the delator toward his dela
tors. Each is armed with the powers of insinuation
or of accusation against all ; all are ranged around
each on the same principle of noiseless impeach
ment.

Six principal trials of faith, of humility, and oi
constancy, are to be passed through by the novice ;
and these deserve attention, as indicative of the sort
of character which the discipline of the Society seems
intended to form.

308 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The first of these methods of probation is that of
employing a month, more or less, in passing through
the course of the Spiritual Exercises, as already
described ; and under those conditions of seclusion
and direction which have been mentioned. The
second trial of sincerity for the novice consists in
spending a second month in an hospital, there giving
attendance upon the sick in any mode that shall be
appointed for him. The third demands that the
novice shall set out, destitute of money or other re
sources, to beg his bread from door to door for the
space of one month. The fourth requires that, on
his return to the house, he should there execute the
most abject and menial offices. The^/fA, that he
should employ himself for a time, in public or in
private, in teaching children, or the most ignorant
of the people, the rudiments of Christian doctrine.
The sixth — after having in these modes approved
himself to the Society — is to undertake for a time
the offices of a preacher or confessor ; or of both
together.

These modes of trial must be trials indeed ; un
less in the administration of the Society a very
great laxity of interpretation be admitted. Let it
however be supposed that the letter of the Institute
is rigorously adhered to. In that case this course
of humiliation will so act upon a few minds, as to
set the dispositions and the habits, in a style of re
ligious intensity, consistent and effective, conferring
upon the individual a sort of unearthly greatness,
which those will not easily equal whose Christian
virtues have been cherished in a less artificial mode.
These few excepted — the few in whom the Society

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 309

will be able to make its boast — a discipline so en
tirely factitious can produce nothing better than a
factitious style of character ; it will cover the moral
nature with a crust of seeming Christian heroism :
it will indurate the exterior, and desiccate the inte
rior man, who, in his moral condition, will be
brought to resemble those rugged orders of animal
life, in which a shell, hard enough to render it the
safe casket of a jewel, encloses a creature that does
not seem to possess either head, or heart, or volun
tary powers ! The human mind is not, we maybe
sure, to be trifled with in such modes as these.
When a severe and humiliating course is imposed
simply as a discipline, and apart from any obvious
necessity, or any reason or utility, the inner sense
revolts at the gratuitous suffering, and so recoils as
to generate a deep hypocrisy, or an inward contra
riety, never, perhaps, spoken of, but which slowly
grows and spreads as a canker in the bosom. Let
any one distinctly imagine the effect that would be
produced upon his feelings, if he found himself
shoved off from a threshold, to practise mendicity as
an amateur in begging ! How fatal an injury must
every proper sentiment sustain, when he knocked
at the first door with a plea of destitution on his
lips, which, in uttering it, he blushes to recollect is
false ! This is an instance, and it is one among
the many with which the Jesuit Institute abounds,
of a method of dealing with human nature too pro
foundly artificial to produce what can merit to be
called genuine virtue. Analogous methods have
often been devised, and have been put in practice in
families, and in schools, by theoretic parents and

310 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

teachers. Whoever has witnessed such experi
ments will have turned from the spectacle in
mingled pity and disgust.

The same artificial style meets us in almost every
page of these multiplied regulations— those espec
ially which relate to the noviciate.

That the device of the begging month is felt to
be nugatory and absurd, appears from the vague
ness of the terms in which the novice's certificate
of having begged in a seemly manner is demanded.
The month's peregrination, however, is not trial
enough in this line. Immediately before taking the
vows, those who are to do so, to whatever class
they may have belonged, are anew thrust out into
the streets for three days— there, and in imitation
of the founders of the Society— to beg from door to
door " for the love of Christ." While, at the com
mand of the cook or scullion, the novice washes the
dishes, or while sweeping the floor, he is to regard
— not the person of him who imposes the task, but
the Lord to whom the service is rendered. Grant
it that, where this discipline finds a fund of affec
tionate piety in the heart, it may work well ; but
otherwise— and these must be the greater number
of instances — a sullen abjectness, or a callous in
difference can be its only consequence.

"It will be better," says the rule, " that the cook
should avoid a softened style of request toward the
novice. Let him rather, with modesty, command
him to do this or that. For if he speaks entreat-
ingly, it is then a man addressing^ man ; — thus it
will be a cook — a layman, asking a priest to wash
an earthen pot, or to do anything of this kind,

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 311

which would seem neither decent nor proper.
Whereas, if he uses the style of command, — ' Do
this — do that'— then it is at once understood that
he speaks as in the name and person of Christ : it is
not the voice of the cook that is heard, nor even
that of a superior, but of the Lord."

Perilous must be all such attempts to give a prac
tical efficiency to an extravagant and hypotheti-
cally constructed religious sentiment ! It may some
times succeed : it is far more likely to fail, and, in
failing, to become purely mischievous.

Repeated indications are given in the course of
these preliminary regulations, of the anxiety which
is felt in relation to the full manifestation of the
souls of the novices to the superiors, who must know
whatever is peculiar to the outward and to the in
ward man ; — the first, by the direct means of con
fession ; the second, chiefly by the incidental aids
of delation. Where all is already well, as to the
religious sentiments, the shifting methods of exam
ination enjoined in these regulations may be, if not
beneficial — harmless. But it is the vice of all such
extreme means of dealing with souls — a vice which
has exhibited itself in the practice of more than one
communion, and among those between whom, and
the Society of Jesus, there may be no other point of
resemblance — that on the whole they generate what
is artificial, what is hypocritical, what is formal.
Even if signally beneficial for a time, these rigor
ous measures quickly swerve from their direct
course, and either become instruments of despotism,
or occasions of Spiritual fraud ; — probably both,
No warrant whatever can be found for them in the

312 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

apostolic writings. Thus far the General Examin
ation, prefixed to the body of the Constitutions.

The FIRST PART of the Constitutions signalizes,
in each of its regulations, the one intention of the
whole ; namely, to bring together a body of men
fitted, by every natural and acquired talent, to work
upon the mass of mankind. The Society will
harbor none who could only vegetate within its pre
cincts, or only apply themselves to their personal
improvement, or only indulge their devotional or
literary tastes. Energy and ability, constitutional
and habitual, are demanded as the indispensa
ble qualities which the Society, in the first place,
looks to.

In the SECOND PART of the Constitutions rules
are given applicable to cases in which a proposal
to enter the Society is declined, after the noviciate
has actually been commenced. —

For instance ; — there is a sufficient reason of ex
clusion when the novice is found to be in such a
state of health, or liable to infirmities of body of
such a kind, as must prevent his undergoing the
labors which the service of the Society may demand ;
and a reason of equal weight excludes those, who,
during their noviciate, have betrayed an indisposi
tion to submit themselves to the law of absolute
obedience, as interpreted within the Society ; and
who are either unable or unwilling to contravene
their own sense and judgment — proprium suum
sen sum aut judicium infringe re.

The THIRD PART relates to the care and ad
vancement of those who proceed with their novi
ciate.

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 313

The first point is to preclude all intercourse
orally, or by writing, with any who might chill the
ardor of the novice, or divert him from his purpose.
In fact he is as strictly watched over, and is as con
stantly attended by a trusty companion, as if he
were a state prisoner. The most stringent and par
ticular rules hedge him in during this period of pro
bation. Converse with others, in the same position
as himself, being ordinarily prohibited; and the
novice himself, while vigilantly guarded by the
functionaries of the house, — we must not call them
"turnkeys" — is enjoined, with a like jealousy, to
watch his own senses and faculties : his eyes, his
ears, his tongue, his soul, his every gesture.

In harmony with the first Jaw of the Institute

namely, the securing the utmost efficiency in its
members — all ascetic extravagancies tending either
to enfeeble the body, or to enervate the mind, are
discouraged ; and every one is permitted to mention
to the superior any particular, relating to his per
sonal comfort, in matters of clothing, diet, lodging,
or the like, which he may think important to his
health ; yet he must do so submissively, leaving the
decision, in all such instances, to his superior. In
what relates to the sustenance and preservation of
the body, it is the example of the Lord that is to
be followed (not that of the mad ascetics of the
desert) : a like prudence is to be regarded in the
apportionment of bodily labors, care being taken
that the elasticity of the mind be not impaired by
over-much toil: a practical good sense reigns in
whatever affects the bodily well-being of the mem
bers of the Society : abstinences, mortifications,
14

314 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

penances, are all to be restricted within bounds of
individual discretion, or are to be limited by the
direct authority of the superior.

The FOURTH PART of these Constitutions re
lates to the secular education of the members of
the Society, and of those whom it takes under its
instructions ; — to the studies to be pursued, and to
the modes of teaching that are to be adopted ; and
in no department of its Constitutions is the true in
tention of the Society more distinctly manifested
than in this.

The Jesuit colleges are establishments, devoted
mainly to purposes of education, which have been
conferred upon the Society by the grant of munifi
cent persons, and which have been adequately en
dowed by them. These establishments, and these
endowments, are held by the Society in a less direct
manner, and the funds attaching to them being so
employed as to confer a benefit upon the commu
nity at large — a benefit, at least, in the opinion of
the Society itself — they do not come within the
range of the vow of poverty. On this side, there
fore, the Society has thought itself at liberty to ac
cumulate wealth ; and it has done so to a vast
amount. This however is beside our immediate
subject ; in fact, it is a subject which could not be
fully treated unless the history of the Society were
pursued downward, through a century from the
time of its origin. It is here adverted to only in
explanation of what occurs in the fourth part of the
Constitutions.

The first chapter of this part relates to those
offices of gratitude which the Society acknowledges

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 315

itself to owe to the founders of its colleges ; a debt
it is willing to discharge by means of perpetual
masses said for their benefit, and for the benefit of
their successors " living and dead."

A transparent good sense, and practical sagacity,
shows itself in all regulations and cautions that
bear upon the conduct of students, and the course
of study, but which do not interfere with the ulte
rior and occult intentions of the Society. The de
tection of this concealed motive, as it calls for a
vigilant attention to every paragraph, so should it
exclude a suspecting ingenuity, too ready to see
mischief where none is intended. In fact, through
out these regulations, so large a margin is left open
to the discretion of the rectors, and so frequent a
use is made of the all-comprehensive injunction, to
do what shall seem most conducive, under any ac
tual circumstances, " ad majorem Dei gloriam," that
the question as to the tendency and character of
the Jesuit educational system is not to be deter
mined otherwise than by the detailed evidence of
history, which must inform us what this scheme
has actually effected, and what, in the course of
years, have been its fruits. Such a reference to the
testimony of history, it is not easy always to ab
stain from, when one would fairly consider the im
port of the regulations now before us. Most of
those who have ranged themselves with the adver
saries of the Society have used no reserve in ex
pounding its rules, by aid of its history. It is
highly desirable, so far as it may be possible, to
avoid this method.

The ample space that is allowed to the discre-

316 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

tionary power of the rectors of colleges, connected
as this is with the absolute dependence of these
functionaries, through their provincials, upon the
General of the order, toward whom they are to hold
no reserve, and whose will is to be their law, renders
the educational scheme of the Jesuits' Society an
elastic and a pliable instrument, which maybe modi
fied, at every moment, and to almost any extent, so
as if to adapt itself constantly to what the interests
of the body, in this or that country, may seem to
demand. In different countries, and amid the revo
lutions of opinion, political or philosophical, this
system of education may wind its tortuous course,
under the skilful pilotage of the General : easily
may it extricate itself from any temporary or local
embarrassment ; and easily, by aid of this plastic
condition of the mass, so mould its exterior form,
as to hold to its great purpose, while compromising
whatever is subsidiary to that purpose.

In this respect the Jesuit educational system
stands on ground which may be said to be essen
tially new ; that is to say, as compared with more
ancient foundations. These for the most part are
stringently obliged by their charters, or by the tes
taments of their founders, to adhere to a certain
course and method ; and thus, while a stability is
secured to them which is in itself of great value,
they are at once precluded from the advantages,
and are preserved from the risks, attaching to a less
restricted condition. The founder of Jesuitism,
when devising the means for binding the world,
took to himself, as a first principle, this rale — him
self to be bound to nothing.

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 317

The FIFTH PART of the Constitutions treats of
admission into the Society ; that is to say, the final
reception into its bosom of those who have passed
through their noviciate with credit, and have been
accepted by its authorities, as men qualified to
spend their lives advantageously in its service. Of
such moment is the act which connects forever a
member with the Society, that the power to admit
is a prerogative reserved to the General. The ex
ercise of this prerogative he delegates as often as
necessary to the provincials, sometimes to the local
superiors, or to the rectors of colleges ; or even to
prelates not themselves members of the Society.
The qualities and the accomplishments required in
every candidate are such — and we should note the
fact — as would secure to this institution a body of
men much more highly gifted than any other com
munity has ever had at its command ; and far more
highly gifted too, than can be necessary in relation
to those religious functions to which the Society pro
fesses to devote, and to confine itself, namely — the
care of souls, public preaching, teaching of children,
and missions to the heathen. And inasmuch as by
means of that thorough knowledge of all under their
control which the superiors, the provincials, and the
General possess, they are well able, at all times,
and even on the exigency of a moment, to choose
from a large number the men best fitted to any kind
of labor, it would seem a sort of prodigality to ex
pend so much labor upon the education of all, very
many of whom will never be called upon to dis
charge any but the humblest duties. If indeed all
are to be thus elaborately trained, must not so costly

318

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

a preparation be held to bear relation to purposes
very unlike any which we find to be acknowl
edged ?

At the end of a two years' noviciate, or of a
longer term, and of a four years' course of study,
the Society, in a mode the most solemn, admits the
candidate into its bosom. No sifting has been
spared which might serve to bring out the most
latent of his dispositions ; no mode of discipline has
been neglected which might give play to his talents.
At length it is ascertained that M. or N. is one who
may well do the work of the Society, and upon
whose obedience and discretion, in the most diffi
cult instances, a thorough reliance may be placed.
All members of the Society then at hand assemble
in the church belonging to it, headed by the pro
vincial, the superiors, and the functionaries of the
order, on the spot. All spaces are filled by spec
tators from the neighborhood. The general him
self presides on these occasions, when circumstances
allow him so to do. After saying Mass, and with
the holy sacrament of the Eucharist before him, the
General, or in his absence the provincial, turns
toward him who is to profess, and who having made
the general confession, and uttered the words usual
before the communion, recites with a loud voice the
formula (which has been in his hands some days)
to the following effect : —

" I, N., make profession, and I promise to God
Almighty, before the Virgin, his Mother, and before
the universal celestial court, and all here present,
and to thee, Reverend Father N., General of the
Society of Jesus, and standing in the place of God,

THE CONSTITUTIONS.

319

and to thy successors (or to the official who shall
act as proxy for the General)— perpetual poverty,
chastity, and obedience, and conformably with which
(obedience) I promise a peculiar care in the instruc
tion of youth, and all in accordance with the rule
of life set forth in the Letters Apostolic, and the
Constitutions of the Society of Jesus.

"Further, I promise a special obedience to the
Sovereign Pontiff in that which regards missions, as
declared in the same Letters Apostolic and Consti
tutions, made at Rome (or elsewhere) the day,
month, year, and in the church named."

These vows pronounced, the professed receives
the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and his
name is enrolled in the registry of the Society, and
a copy of his vows, written with his own hand, is
deposited among its archives. A corresponding
form— the fourth vow of obedience to the Pope, is
omitted in the admission of the coadjutors and of
the Scholars.

The SIXTH PART of the Constitutions relates to
the behavior and occupations of those who in this
manner have entered the Society. The first point
being that chastity, concerning which nothing more
need be said than that the vow thereto relating
binds to an endeavor to imitate the purity of the
angels in body and mind. But the vow of obedi
ence being in fact the very rudiment of the Jesuit

Institute — demands a rigorous explication of its
meaning and extent. We should not fail to observe
the peculiar anxiety which manifests itself in rela
tion to this subject, whenever it is alluded to in the
Constitutions, or elsewhere. No one can doubt that

320 IGNATIUS LOYOLA,

it is understood to be the foundation-stone of the
structure.

An instantaneous compliance, not merely with
the express commands of the superior, but with aity
silent indication of his will, is the law of every
member of the Society. The entire strength of the
body, and force of the will, with the special aid of
the divine grace, is to be concentrated upon this one
virtue of perfect obedience; — holy obedience — per
fect always in the execution of commands — perfect
in the will — perfect in the understanding. What
ever is enjoined is to be performed with prompti
tude, with spiritual joy, and perseverance, and in
the conviction that whatever is commanded by the
superior is just, and is to be complied with in blind
obedience, leaving no room for individual impres
sions or judgment ; unless sin therein be manifest.
Thus is every one to yield himself to the guidance
of the Divine Providence, as signified to him by his
superior ; even as if he were a dead body, which
suffers itself to be moved this way or that, or to be
handled in any wray ; or as the staff in the hand of
an old man which is employed in any manner, at
the will of him who holds it.

" Above all things is it necessary that all sur
render themselves to a perfect obedience ; acknowl
edging the superior, be he whomsoever he may, as
standing in the place of our Lord Jesus Christ, fol
lowing him in inward veneration and love, and
this (exhibited) not merely in an exterior fulfilment
of his commands, entirely, promptly, vigorously,
and with a due humility yielding obedience without
excuses or murmurings ; although such commands

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 321

be of difficult execution, and repugnant to natural
feelings: but moreover that they strive, as to the
interior, to cherish resignation, and to practice a
true abnegation of their own will and judgment —
conforming their will and judgment to that which
their superior wills and thinks in all things (wherein
sin is not perceived) proposing to themselves the
will and judgment of their superior as the rule of
their own, whereby they may the better be con
formed to that supreme rule, which is in itself eter
nal goodness and wisdom."

The obedience due to the superior of each house
or college, is due also to all subaltern functionaries
appointed by him. A note attached to the above
passage recommends the superior to put the obedi
ence of those under his care to severe and gratui
tous tests — tempting them, even as God tempted
Abraham ; nevertheless with a due regard always
to the strength of him upon whom such experi
ments are to be tried.

It is as a branch of this perfect and unreasoning
compliance with the nod of his superior, that the
Jesuit is enjoined to disclose to him his inmost soul.
The question which obtrudes itself upon the mind
again and again in perusing these injunctions is
this — can it be solely and purely in relation to the
intelligible offices of Christian benevolence, and of
popular instruction, that a law of obedience so ex
traordinary as this, and so tremendous, can be
either necessary or warrantable? Do not these
unearthly conditions mutely declare purposes of a
very different kind, and of far greater difficulty?
14*

322 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

WTio can exclude from his thoughts such supposi
tions?

The vow of poverty is anew enforced and ex
plained in this part ; but upon ground necessarily
implying one of the three assumptions following,
namely — That the Society expects and confides in
a miraculous dispensation in its favor — from day to
day — from year to year, and in perpetuity ; or,
That it calculates with more of calmness than in
genuousness upon that constant stream of pious
munificence which it shall be able to direct towards
its establishments, by aid of its control over the
public mind ; — or That it bears in mind (and so
relieves its disquietudes) that device by means of
which it is able, as in fact it has done, at once to
profess poverty, to live upon alms, and to amass
wealth. Perhaps the three sources of supply are
alternately kept in view ; or are held available,
singly, as occasions may demand.

Let it however be acknowledged that, even if the
Society did cherish a little illusion in what relates
to its support and secular welfare, and did speak of
things as practicable which it knew were not so,
yet that a harmony characterizes its regulations
and instructions in this behalf. So far as such a
scheme of conventual existence could be realized —
and it might be realized under circumstances pecu
liarly favorable — there is a noble simplicity in it —
there is a moral force and grandeur ; and undoubt.
edly the influence of this system upon the conduct
and feelings of the simple-minded, (we must be
permitted to speak of simple-minded Jesuits) would
be of a kind tending to cherish a self-immolating

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 323

heroism. In fact it has been by the instrumentality
of men of this class that the Society has won its
triumphs. Its exceptive instances have saved it,
when its own machinations have gone near to
ruin it.

The rule of obedience, as we have seen, admits a
parenthesis — a saving clause, in regard to the ten
der conscience of here and there a scrupulous mem
ber. Obedience is to be blind — unless sin be mani
fest. The Jesuit is to close his eyes, and is to hold
them closed, and yet he is, by aid of some other
sense, to get notice of the presence of sin, should it
at .any time be involved in the commands of a supe
rior. An explanatory rule, bearing upon this deli
cate case, is as follows ; — whether it amounts to an
entire nullification of that liberty which the paren
thesis seems to grant, let the reader determine for
himself : —

" Although it is the intention of the Society, that
all its Constitutions, and Declarations, and its Rule
of life, should be undcviatingly observed, according
to the Institute ; yet it nevertheless desires to tran
quillize, or at least to guard the minds of all its
members from the danger of falling into the snare
of any sin, owing to the obligation of these Consti
tutions and ordinances. Therefore it hath seemed
good to us in the Lord, with the express exception
of the vow of obedience to the Pope for the time
being, and the other three 'fundamental Vows of
Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, to declare that
none of these Constitutions, Declarations, or Rules
of life, shall make obligatory any sin whether mor
tal or venial ; unless the superior may command it

324 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, or in virtue
of the vow of obedience ; and this he may do when
ever and to whomsoever he may judge it conducive,
either to individual good, or to the universal well-
being of the Society. Thus for the greater glory of
Christ our Creator and Lord, instead of a perpetual
fear of sinning, is substituted love, and the desire of
entire perfection."

The SEVENTH PART relates to the assignment
of tasks, at home or abroad, to the members of the
Society individually.

It has already been said that a vast preparation
is made — means the most unusual are resorted to,
and a course of discipline is instituted which has
no parallel for securing the services of a large body
of accomplished men, under conditions the most
severe ; and we have yet to learn what those high
purposes are that might seem proportionate to the
magnitude and solemnity of such preliminaries.

The first of the avowed purposes of the Society,
and it is that to which much importance is attached
— ut inter caeteras praecipua — includes those missions
(to the heathen principally) which the sovereign
Pontiff may enjoin, conformably with the vow to
that effect made by every professed Jesuit. This
undoubtedly is a great and worthy object, although
it by no means demands the sort of preparation
which the Jesuit Institute involves.

But let us hear in what terms the Society interprets
its obligation to obey the sovereign Pontiff in what
relates to foreign missions. First, as to the coun
try whither its members should direct their course :
— upon this point, inasmuch as the Society has

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 325

submitted its own sense and will " to our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to his Vicar, it is not permitted to the
superior for himself, nor to any subaltern for him
self, nor for another, to use endeavors, mediately or
immediately, intended to influence the Sovereign
Pontiff, or his ministers, in determining where any
one should reside, or whither he should be sent.
Every one in particular leaves this determination
absolutely to the vicar of Christ, and to his supe
rior ; the superior leaves it to the pontiff and to the
Society — in the Lord ;" — that is to say, to the Gen
eral, who is to enlighten the pontiff in whatever
relates to such decisions, and to arrange the matter
with him, as best he may. Whoever is in this
manner designated, and sent forth, is to go uncon
ditionally, and without demanding even the costs
of his journey, or any remuneration.

In looking at the amplitude of these engagements
— freely entered into as they are by the Society, it
is barely possible to exclude all recollection of that
flagrant course of contumacious resistance to the
papal authority which has marked the Jesuit mis
sions in the East, and elsewhere, almost from the
earliest days. A determined defiance of papal bulls,
and a fixed contempt of apostolic letters has been,
in practice, the comment put by the Society upon
its vow of implicit obedience. In this same man
ner, we have seen Loyola, after professing himself
to be bound to the vicar of Christ by his own doc
trine of passive obedience, employing every means
of vehement protest and of intrigue, either to influ
ence the papal decisions, or to evade them. The

326 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

remaining1 instructions of this seventh part are few
and meagre.

The EIGHTH PART relates to the means to be
used for maintaining a good and intimate under
standing among the members of the Society: and
between them and their head. The first of these
means is the careful exclusion (or expulsion, if it
has been incautiously admitted) of the leaven of
self-will, or individuality. Whoever shows a dis
position to think for himself— whoever fails in the
prime article of passive obedience, is either to be
removed to a distant province, or to be expelled
from the Society. It is in proportion to the perfec
tion of this first of Jesuit virtues that it fulfils its
intention, and only so that it prospers.

An accessary means for securing this thorough
accordance of all movements is the appointment,
when and where it shall seem necessary, of a col
league, or collateral, who himself owing no obedi
ence to the functionary at whose elbow he stands,
advises him in critical instances, acts as a sort of
flywheel to the machinery, when otherwise a jar or
stop might occur ; and who imposes caution and
fear upon the superior and the subaltern, by his
known use of the license of delation, which, how
ever, is not so to be employed as might tend to
weaken the authority of the superior. To the Gen
eral he conveys uncontrolled and uncontradicted
intelligence of whatever he sees, as well as of what
he does not see. and only surmises. It is thus that
this complicated scheme of government commands
a double system of espionage — one regular and con-

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 327

stant ; the other applied whenever circumstances
may seem to render the first insufficient.

A despotism absolutely unmixed, or which makes
no statute provision for extreme cases of misrule, or
for occasions of extraordinary difficulty, will either
bring- upon itself a sudden destruction, or will neces
sitate a transmutation into some other form of polity.

The founders of Jesuitism would not leave their
Institute exposed to any such peril as this ; and to
avert the danger they have not only made provision
for dethroning the autocrat in extreme cases, but
have mitigated a little his rule, and placed him un
der a measure of control by the aid of a democratic'
element, — the General Congregation, which is con
voked, not periodically indeed, nor frequently ; but
as extraordinary occasions may demand, and either
at the will of the General, or even of a majority of
those who immediately surround him. It is the
professed members only, with a few of the coadju
tors, who are summoned to attend this Congrega
tion. Nor is it all even of these who are con
voked, but those only who can attend without per
sonal inconvenience, and without damage to the
affairs with which they are entrusted. In fact, the
electoral apparatus of a representative government
is put in movement on such occasions. Thus, by
a provision of the most peculiar kind, a polity which
is more purely monarchical than any other, takes
;o itself the prerogatives of a regular and efficient
representative government — at any moment when,
without such a transformation, a crisis would proba
bly ensue. A designed indistinctness attaches to
the language of the CONSTITUTIONS, when speci-

328 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

fying, or professing to specify, the cases that might
warrant the convoking a Congregation of the order.
As rarely as possible is the Society to be subjugated
to the labors and to the distractions of such an as
semblage. The General, aided by those around
him, would no doubt avert the necessity of this
measure, as far as it may be possible for him so to
do. It must, however, be undergone as often as the
election of a general is to take place, whether occa
sioned by the death of him who had held that
office, or by so extraordinary an occurrence as his
deposition. A Congregation must also be sum-
%oned when the permanent interests of the Society
at large are in question, or when colleges or houses
are to be broken up.

An elaborate system is put in movement for the
election of members in each province, who are to
be its delegates in this muster of the order. The
congregation when convoked, as for example for the
election of a General, may, after having discharged
this duty, proceed to consider other matters, and
such as may be regarded as too weighty to be left
to his discretion, or that of his coadjutors. On such
occasions therefore, that is to say, as often as a de
mise of the sovereign power takes place, the mon
archical principle is held in abeyance, even although
a successor to it has been appointed, and for a mo
ment the Society breathes its own breath, and speaks
and acts as a free community. The Jesuit Insti
tute, therefore, is at once an absolute monarchy, a
mixed monarchy, and a democracy, and it is so not
by a balance of the several elements of power in

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 329

simultaneous juxta-position, but by an alternating
and variable supremacy of each.

The NINTH PART of the CONSTITUTIONS relates
to the office of the General, and to the rules and
modes of his administration.

The strongest reasons favor an election to this
officer/or life, an office altogether analogous to those
ruled by this same condition— such as that of the
Pope, and of all ecclesiastical dignitaries. The
qualities that should recommend any one to this
high position are — the enjoyment of the favor of
God, and the consequent possession, in an eminent
degree, of all those gifts and graces which emanate
from the source of all good : — a life exemplary in
the sight of men ; and a temper adorned by humil
ity ; — earthly affections mortified — a disposition
calm and circumspect ; and manners grave and se
date. He must, however, be firm and resolved, and
capable of carrying measures of severity when such
are called for ; yet should he be full of tenderness
toward those whom he chastises. He must be dis
tinguished by courage and greatness of mind, apt
to form the largest plans, not soon discouraged, but
steady in purpose to carry them forward, unmoved
by threats, or by entreaties ; and even when those
who would divert him from his course are the lofti
est potentates. He must be ready to die, if need
be, for the Society, and in the service of the Lord ;
and of such tranquil temperament as to be neither
elated by prosperity, nor dejected by adversity.

The General must shine among his fellows by
intelligence, as well as by every acquired accom
plishment, by practical ability, and pre-eminently

330 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

by soundness of judgment and prudence — by expe
rience in things spiritual, and by knowledge of hu
man nature. He must be so well skilled moreover
in secular affairs, as to be able to deal advantage
ously with me,n of all conditions. He must be
distinguished by his assiduity, promptness, energy,
and habits of dispatch in business. He should in
person, age, health, figure, manners, be such as to
command the respect due to his office, and to the
discharge of its duties ; and should actually enjoy
the favor and esteem of all men. He should be one
long known within the Society, and highly esteemed,
and who, whatever other qualities he may lack,
must be recommended by probity, a clear judg
ment, and devoted affection to the Society.

The General thus qualified to govern so vast
a community, exercises an authority which has
scarcely any limits. To him belongs the preroga
tive of admitting to membership ; as also of expul
sion. He sends whithersoever he will, those who
are prosecuting their studies. He superintends and
governs colleges, in all that relates to the scholars,
the professors, and other functionaries, especially to
the rectors themselves, whom he nominates or de
poses, and whose authority in each instance he de
fines: to him they render account of their adminis
tration, and in like manner he governs all those
universities that are placed under* the control of the
Society.

All contracts of a pecuniary kind, all sales and
purchases, must be effected or sanctioned by the
General ; his power in matters secular being bounded
only by this restriction, that he may not alienate or

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 331

break up colleges or houses, without the consent of
a congregation of the order. As it is his office and
duty to enforce the strict observance of the CONSTI
TUTIONS upon all the members of the Society and
its officers, so does it rest with him to dispense with
that observance in any instances in which — as en
lightened from above — he may think that the main
ends of the institution would better be secured by a
breach of them, than by a rigid adherence to the
letter of the law. That is to say, the General is
virtually superior to law, or he is held to it only by
the possible resentment and resistance of those
around him.

The General exercises the most absolute control
over all persons and measures attaching to foreign
missions — regardful, only and always, of that higher
control which the Society, by its fourth vow, assigns
to the sovereign Pontiff. He distributes according
to the talents of each, the offices of confessor, reader,
preacher, and the like.

Whatever powers or privileges may be accorded
to the Society by the Pontiff, are at the absolute
disposal of the General. To him belongs the inflic
tion of punishment, and the appointment of pen
ances. It is at his discretion that general or pro
vincial assemblies are convoked. Without his per
mission (and it is granted only in the most rare in
stances, and at the express command of the Holy
See) no member of the Society can accept any office
or dignity out of its pale. All offices within it are
filled at his appointment. It belongs to him to ac
cept any houses, colleges, or universities, with their
endowments, that may be offered to the Society — a

332 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

discretion, as to the retention of such, being reserved
for the general congregation.

It is his duty to make himself intimately ac
quainted with the consciences of all who are sub
jected to his authority, the Provincials especially,
and of those to whom the most important functions
have been assigned. In a word, all power, with the
fewest possible limitations, is left in the hands of
the head of the Society.

The Society, however, while subjecting itself to
an authority so absolute, keeps an eye upon its own
well-being, and upon the great purposes of its
institution. The proceedings of the General are
watched on the part of the Society, by officers ap
pointed for that purpose, and always resident near
him. These "Assistants," four in number, exer
cise a control to which he is bound to submit, over
his personal expenses, his establishment, and his
attire ; and even over his personal conduct, so far
as to moderate any labors or abstinences which they
may think excessive and prejudicial to his health.
They appoint him a confessor, or other well quali
fied person, who, taking the oversight of his spirit
ual welfare, admonishes and advises him, with hu
mility and freedom, having in view solely the glory
of God.

A possible case is provided for, in which the Gen
eral may be urgently pressed by a secular prince to
accept some office incompatible with the due dis
charge of his functions, and which would render a
resignation on his part necessary. To no such
solicitations can he yield without the consent of the

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 333

Society; and this is never to be granted unless in
submission to the authority of the Pope.

Should the General become hopelessly negligent
in the performance of his duties, or incapable
through disease, or the advance of years, a vicar is
appointed, with or without his consent, upon whom
devolves all the powers of the superseded or super
annuated General.

The last case supposed as possible (never it is
hoped actually to occur) in which the Society, by
means of its officers, resumes the powers it has
conferred, is that of some flagrant delinquency on
the part of the General, such as sensuality, the in
fliction of a wound upon any one, malversation in
the administration of the funds of the Society, gifts
to those not belonging to it, the alienation of the
property of houses or colleges, or the holding of
false doctrine. In any such case, if incontestably
established, the Society deposes the General, and
may even expel him from its pale.

In the mode in which the equilibrium of powers
is provided for, the Provincials yielding passive
obedience, or professing so to do, while at the same
time they are held responsible to the Society at
large, and required to exercise some discretion,
involves an anomaly of which no explanation can
be given except that which applies equally to poli
tics and to mechanics, namely, that some such
means of adjustment, as the theory of the con
struction would not admit, is in fact allowed for in
the working of its parts, by help of the unperceived
elasticity of the materials. On no other supposition
can we reconcile that unconditional, and yet con-

334 IGNATIUS LOYOLA,

ditional law of obedience, which connects the
supreme power, in the Jesuit institute, with the
subordinate power.

In the execution of his office, involving an exact
attention to a vast multiplicity of affairs, and to
questions the most difficult and diverse, the General
is aided by his own assistants, heads of depart
ments, administrators of particular interests, and
generally by a remembrancer, whose duty it is to
recall to his recollection daily, what, from the infir
mity of the best memory, might otherwise be for
gotten.

The TENTH and last PART of the CONSTITU
TIONS embraces various subjects bearing upon the
well-being of the Society, upon its efficiency, and its
permanence.

Some perhaps would not be ready to suppose that
a passage such as the following would occur in the
midst of a system of laws so immoral in their ten
dency as are those of " the Society," and connected
with the history of what is regarded as a confed
eracy against the liberties of nations. But inas
much as we are not now constructing an argument
upon materials of late date, all credit should be
given to the professions here cited.

" Inasmuch as the Society, which has not been
established by human means, but by the favor of
the Almighty and of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
hope in Him alone must be placed, confident that
he will maintain and further this work, which he
has vouchsafed to commence, for His service and
glory and the succor of souls. In accordance with
this hope, the prime and most suitable means to be

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 335

employed for this end are prayers and sacrifices,
offered with this pious intention, in all places where
the Society is established, and at appointed times
in due order every week, month, and year.

"For the preservation and increase, not of the body
merely of the Society, that is to say of those things
that are external, but also of its spirit, and for the
attainment of that which it proposes to itself, namely
the benefit of souls, in aiding- them to reach their
final and celestial destiny, those means are the most
efficacious which connect the instrument with God,
and dispose it to be rightly governed by the divine
hand, rather than such as attemper it toward men.
Of this sort are probity and virtue, and especially
charity — a pure intention to serve God — a familiar
communion with God in the spiritual exercises of
devotion ; and a sincere zeal for the welfare of
souls, tending to the glory of Him who has created
and redeemed them ; and this apart from any
thought of further advantage. Thus then we should
see to it, that all those who dedicate themselves to
the service of the Society, apply themselves to the
study of the solid and perfect virtues, and of spirit
ual excellences ; and that they attach more import
ance to these things, than to learning, or other na
tural gifts and accomplishments. For it is from
these interior graces that an efficacious influence
should flow for securing the ends we purpose as to
things exterior.

" These gifts and graces being present, all exte
rior and natural means useful for obtaining influ
ence with men, are with assiduity to be employed,
especially a solid and exact erudition, an'l the art

336 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

or faculty of conveying to the people, in sermons
and lectures, the rudiments of knowledge."

Ths disinterestedness of professors in colleges is
to be secured by a strict observance of the rules
thereto relating. That poverty which is so indis
pensable to the well-being of a religious order is to
be most sedulously guarded from the insidious ad
vances of the spirit of cupidity. The occasions of
ambition are to be cut off, the utmost vigilance is
to be observed in the admission of members, and
firmness in expelling the unworthy. All care is to
be used in the election of the chief of the So
ciety, and in the appointment of all inferior officers.
A frequent and intimate communication is to be
maintained among the members, and between them
and their superiors. All excesses prompted by an
indiscreet fervor are to be discouraged. The good
opinion of the world at large, and the favor of
princes, are to be sought for ; yet not by courting
parties. The best use is to be made of the favors
granted to the Society by the apostolic See. Such
are the means which should be diligently used for
securing the welfare, permanence, and increase of
the Society.

Certain points in relation to which the distinction
between Romanism and Jesuitism is, if not obvious,
yet real and vitally important, are presented to view
in an incidental manner throughout the Constitu
tions. The evidence that touches upon these points
is to be gleaned, up and down, from the surface of
this body of laws.

Among these subjects, thus incidentally and
somewhat obscurely set forth, none are of deeper

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 337

consequence than are the Jesuit practices of " Con
fession" — the " Manifestation of the conscience,"
and the appended usage of " Delation." The prin
ciple involved in these practices, and the bearing of
this principle upon the unalterable constitution of
the human mind, and upon the eternal laws of God's
government of the moral world, demand attention.
On this ground, as well as in the interpretation
which Loyola has put upon the doctrine of obedi
ence, the most candid inquirer into the merits of
Jesuitism is compelled to acknowledge that the sys
tem rests upon a principle, and authorizes practices
that do the most frightful violence to human nature,
and that contravene, in an outrageous manner, the
rirst principles of natural and revealed religion. In
these instances the inherent and irremediable vi-
ciousness of this Institute obtrudes itself upon our
view.

The Romish Church, how culpable soever it may
itself be on this ground, has shown itself not insen
sible to the perils and abuses that beset its practice
of Confession ; and it has, by stringent and reitera
ted enactments, done something to diminish these,
dangers, and to repress those mischiefs, the exist
ence of which it admits. How far these precau
tionary measures may have been effective is not
now a question to be considered : at the least they
are indicative of a feeling that is good in itself. The
Romish Church allows her members individually to
choose a Confessor, wherever there may be room for
suc-h a choice ; and in doing so it establishes, be-
between the penitent and the Confessor, in some
sort, a relationship of affectionate confidence, and

338 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

of personal friendship. And then the confidence
reposed by the one in the other is guarded by enact
ments and by sanctions the most peremptory, and
which in fact are not often violated: — the priest's
lips do, in this sense, "keep knowledge,"— i. e.
retain it. And then when confession has been duly
made, absolution granted, and the imposed penances
performed, all is so far concluded ; and although a
deep incision may have been made into the bosom,
yet has it also been closed by the same professional
hand.

But the Society, on this ground, deals in a very
different manner with its members. Every Jesuit
is obliged to confess himself, at the stated times,
and they are frequent, to the one Confessor who
has been appointed for him by his superior. This
functionary, who receives the confessions of all
within the house or college to which he is attached,
instead of being at liberty to grant absolution in
the mode, and on the terms, customary in the Rom
ish Church, is instructed to reserve certain speci
fied cases of delinquency, and to report them to the
Superior. In fact, whatever may either touch the
reputation of the individual, or may serve in any
manner to afford a clue to his secret dispositions, is,
on the ground of its being "a reserved case," re
ported to those next in authority ; and through
these it ascends, when of sufficient importance, to
the ear of the General : the penitent meanwhile is
held in suspense, not only imabsolved, but in doubt
as to the course that may be pursued toward him
in the infliction of punishment. In this manner —
that is to say, by holding always in his hand a

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 339

number of these reserved cases— the Superior rules
his house with a rod of iron. Undefined terrors are
at his command ; the fate of every one whose con
science has compelled him to confess a sin which is
of the "reserved" class — his fate, temporal and
eternal, is in the hand of the Superior, and remains
in his hand for an indefinite time.

But even when Confession has gone its length,
what is called "the manifestation of the conscience"
goes much farther; for this practice, not indeed
new among the monastic orders, plunges a ruthless
hand into the bosom, to the utmost depth which
human nature may admit, and leaves absolutely
nothing unsurrendered of the inmost secrets of the
soul. If such a violation of the first rudiment of
the moral life be intolerable when the bosoms sub
jected to it are such only as a monastery is likely
to harbor, how intolerable must it be when it is sus
tained by men of intelligence and energy, and who
are daily moving in and out on the crowded paths
of common life! An outrage like this, committed
upon minds such as these, will not fail cither to
break the spirit, or to debauch it. Romish Confes
sion, and Jesuit Confession, with its attendant " man
ifestation," are not by any means identical, nor
should they be confounded : — the one is a religious
usage; — the other is a means of secular govern
ment; and in how frightful a sense does it become
such when confession and manifestation are the
groundwork upon which " Delation" makes good its
footing !

It may happen that, neither by the confession of
his sins, nor by the manifestation of his conscience.

340 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

has a member of the Society thoroughly removed
from the minds of his Superior all suspicions as to
his sincerity, or his subserviency. Perhaps it has
not yet become perfectly certain that he, individual
ly, may safely be employed in this or that manner ;
or that the Society holds his whole soul at its
absolute command. For cases of this kind it
makes provision by means of the practice of
Delation. Delation follows upon Confession and
Manifestation — sweeping the ground after each of
them, and gathering up, by the menial broom and
shovel of silent treachery, whatever may lie scat
tered about, and which may be in any manner sig
nificant.

Every Jesuit is encouraged — nay he is bound —
to report to his Superior whatever he may know,
and whatever he may suspect, relative to the con
duct, to the private habits, or to the secret disposi
tions of every other. Every Jesuit is a spy upon
every Jesuit: a net-work of perfidy embraces the
entire community, and from its meshes not even
those highest in authority stand for a moment clear.
Every functionary knows that he is minutely
watched by every eye around him, and that he may
be reported and accused to the central authority,
without his cognizance of the charge, and from
which charge he has no opportunity to clear himself.
Spiritual despotism hoards this influx of treacher
ous criminations among her choicest treasures, and
brings them forth, after perhaps a lapse of years,
when they may be found to be of avail for carrying
her long-meditated purposes. Let us now be told
whether Christian simplicity and manly ingenuous-

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 341

ness, whether the purest and the noblest virtues are
likely to flourish within precincts thus brooded
over by fear, by malice, and by" falsehood ? Let not
the extreme proposition be maintained— that piety
and virtue, candor and truth, can never exist under
conditions such as these. It is more than enough
for any purposes of argument if it appears — that a
scheme of government which first robs men of all
self-respect, and then of all confidence, one in ano
ther, must render Christian piety and manly virtue
rare ; — and what does this mean when we are
speaking of a body of men who offer themselves to
the world as the teachers and patterns of both ?

So long as the constitution of the human mind,
and the first principles of that moral economy un
der which we find ourselves to be placed, are re
spected, the confession of faults one to another, and
the disclosure of the inmost secrets of the bosom
will be regarded as exceptive cases, that are war
rantable, or that are rendered necessary, by pecu
liar and special reasons. These special reasons
therefore must always prescribe the limits within
which the practice can be allowed as legitimate, or
can be encouraged, as of good tendency. But if no
such limits are observed, then this disclosure of the
individual consciousness has become, not the exep-
tive instance, but the rule, and then, consequently,
each instance of concealment becomes, not merely
an exception to a rule, but an exception that is open
to the severest reprehension. It is thus therefore
that the Jesuit practices, above adverted to, rest
broadly upon a misunderstanding of human nature
— upon a violation of its most sacred instincts, and

342

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

of the conscience as related to the divine govern
ment.

The very rudiment of the intellectual, as well as
of the moral life, is the power of reserve. This
encrusting of the soul is the first law. and it is
the necessary condition of that individuality, apart
from which there remains no fulcrum of resolve, no
self-originating progress or purpose, no liberty, no
dignity, no love ; and therefore, by inevitable con
sequence, no virtue. Whoever will follow out in
idea these conditions, will feel that wisdom and
virtue, strength of purpose, self-respect, and respect
for others (apart from which love is not possible)
can no longer be conceived of after we have re
jected from our conception of human nature all
power of seclusion and concealment, and have
thoroughly denuded the individual mind and heart.
Man, created as he was in the likeness of God,
bears upon his very front no ambiguous indication
of his participation in that perfection of the Divine
nature which surrounds it with " clouds and dark
ness." " None by searching can find out God," or,
" know his mind," for " He giveth no account of
any of His matters." He still " hideth himself,"
even in the heavens where his glory is manifested.
And so, while endeavoring distinctly to conceive of
any order of beings, we wholly fail to associate with
such a conception the idea of personal virtue, until
we have admitted the idea of individual inviola
bility : Virtue will have her vesture. That this
power of concealment is in fact of primary impor
tance, as the ground or support of individual re
sponsibility, may well be inferred from the fact that,

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 343

in the constitution of man, it has been guarded
with the utmost care. How terrific an illustration
of that sacred inviolability with which the Creator
has endowed human nature do we obtain, when
mechanic ingenuity is seen to be exhausting in vain
its last devices of torture at the bidding of tyranny,
only to break up by force this power of reserve, and
to violate this inviolability ! Blood oozes from every

vein the sinews crack — the marrow of the bones

drops from the fingers' ends, sooner than the secrets .
of a firmly constructed soul can be wrenched from
the bosom ! The quivering lips emit involuntary
groans ; but they do not belie that awful truth of
the moral system— That God's own hand has
sealed man's individuality, by conferring upon him
this strength of the will ! Can it then be a light
matter to fret away, by little and little, this cover
ing of the soul, which is the fence of virtue, and its
necessary condition, and which the Creator has
planted so deep in the recesses of our nature ?

That which despotism attempts to accomplish by
the anguish of the rack, a perverted and vicious
ingenuity has sought to achieve by its sinister pro
cedures.

If love be the perfection of virtue, or if virtue be
love universal, then is it certain that, if by any
means an entire exposure of the inmost soul could
be effected, such as would rend away the last re
serve of self-esteem, then virtue would be possible
no more. Even an approach toward such a de
nuding of the heart, and toward such an abandon
ment ^individuality, is felt to be prejudicial to the
purest affections. Those who are well skilled in

344 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

human nature do not need to be told this ; for the}
are conscious of it as by a sort f intuition. Love
is the communing of two spirits, or it is such an in
tertwining- of natures as that \i hile the branches,
the foliage, and the clusters appc ar all as one mass,
yet each plant has its own stem, and its own root ;
and the root of each must draw its nourishment
from a depth beneath, and apart from the other.
It is the weakly-fond, it is not the wise, who would
push the revealing of hearts beyond all limit. It is
a diseased prurience, not a virtuous ingenuousness,
which shows itself impatient of all concealment. A
mind that has been violated by the prurience, or by
the tyranny of another, feels that it has lost, and
perhaps has lost irrecoverably, its contractile force :
• — henceforward individual purposes, and resolves,
and energy, and the calm consciousness of strength,
are gone ! Now the Romish practice of Confession,
whatever evils may attend it, does not in any such
manner violate the inner principle of the moral na
ture. Confession may indeed, and it should, suf
fuse the cheek with crimson ; but* this Jesuit prac
tice of the manifestation of the conscience, which
leaves nothing unrevealed, spreads over the visage
the palidness of despair. Shame — that is to say a
virtuous shame — the shame whence reformation
might take its rise, springs from a painful conscious
ness of the contrast which the penitent's own con
fession has presented to the eye of another, between
that outside of virtue which personal reserve has
hitherto maintained, and the delinquency which
has now been disclosed. But if all reserve has been
abandoned, shame can have place no more — for

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 345

there can now be no contrast — no confusion of face
— no humbling of pride; henceforth -there is room
only for sullen despondency, for self-contempt, or
for immoveable apathy !

If it be said that the wisdom or expediency of any
practice that is called in question must be judged
of, not on grounds of abstract reasoning, but by pay
ing regard to certain purposes that are in view, and
that these purposes may be of so extraordinary a
kind, or may be at once of such difficulty and of
such importance as to warrant what otherwise must
be regarded as vicious and unwarrantable ; if this
be said, then a further question presents itself ; and
it must *be asked, "What these extraordinary pur
poses are which might be alleged as proper and
sufficient for justifying the vast apparatus of spirit
ual tyranny which the Jesuit Institute puts in
movement.

15*

CHAPTER IV.

THE PURPORT OF THE JESUIT INSTITUTE.

WHAT, then, are the professed intentions of the
Society of Jesus? And what are those labors
which it undertakes ? And of what kind are the
preparations which it makes for achieving its
avowed purposes ? Is there a manifest adaptation
of such means to the accomplishment of such ends ;
and are the means duly proportioned to the ends ?

These queries are plainly reasonable, nor should
they be dismissed until they have been disposed of
in a manner that is free from ambiguity.

A passage lately cited, p. 334, may well be re
ferred to as a fair sample of the style in which the
founders of the Society declare their motives, and
set forth the ends and purposes toward which all
their labors are directed, and within the compass
of which this mass of rules and enactments — this
thousand and more of carefully digested regula
tions, find their reason. Scarcely a chapter or a
page of the Constitutions is wanting in similar pro
testations of the highest and the purest religious
motives, as the sole incentives of action that are
recognized by the Society. «

Let then these professions be accepted as genuine,
and as ingenuous ; that is to say, as being clear of
all suspicion of mental reservation. But if so, then

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 347

the avowal of purposes, as well as the profession
of .motives, must be taken as an entire or compre
hensive avowal. This should be clearly under
stood. If we give credence to the Society while
declaring that it is animated by no motive of secu
lar ambition, and that it is warmed solely by the
love of God in " Christ Jesus the Lord," then must
we also regard it as certain that, when the Society
specifies the labors and duties to which its members
are to devote themselves, nothing remains behind —
nothing— no offices are silently thought of — no
functions are held in prospect of which no mention
is made.

But it must be granted, that if the avowal of
purposes be found to be incomplete or disingenu
ous, then the profession of motives will, at the same
time, have forfeited all claim to our confidence ;
and in that case the " Society of Jesus" will seem
to have come into full and rightful possession of its
vulgar reputation. Thenceforward no injustice
\vill be done to Jesuitism when, without qualifying
the term, we employ it as an epithet, carrying its
conventional meaning, all the world over, and call
it — JESUITISM.

The Founders of the Society first make a pro
fession, as we have said, of their motives. They
then spread before us the means they have devised,
and the preparations they have made for effecting
a great work, at the impulse of such motives, and
in harmony therewith. Vast are these means —
mighty is this preparation ! No such scheme, none
so elaborate, so exactly balanced, so highly finished,
has the world ever seen. No other system has so

348 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

carefully selected its agents, or has subjected them
to so severe a training. Nothing would this scheme
seem to want, either in amplitude, or in elabora
tion, or in a profoundly calculated adaptation to the
shifting occasions of this world's affairs, if indeed
its ulterior purpose were to grasp, to bind, and to
serve itself upon — the human family ! Nothing
more than what the Jesuit institute includes would
appear to be needed, if the establishment of a uni
versal empire, secular in its ends, but spiritual in
its pretexts, were proved to be in truth its intention.

But how simple, must we not say — how vapid,
is the recital which the Society makes of the pur
poses to which it dedicates this mighty machinery !
Awe and terror attach, on every side, to the ma
chine ; a guileless benevolence, which seems to
need no machinery whatever, characterizes its
avowed labors !

The Jesuit Society proposes to itself such labors
as these : — First, to take the oversight and direc
tion of souls, for their furtherance heavenward ; it
intends to aim at nothing in the dicharge of this
duty that is not purely spiritual. Secondly, it of
fers its unpaid services in the very humble office of
catechising children and youth, and of imparting
the rudiments of knowledge, religious and secular :
— it is, or would be, schoolmaster gratis, to all the
world. And, thirdly, it charges itself with the la
bors — arduous indeed — of evangelizing the hea
then, and of restoring a catholic belief among apos
tate nations. This is the whole duty ostensibly
undertaken by the Society ! Not a syllable occurs
in any of its authentic documents whence might be

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 349

inferred any latent intention to step over these
modest boundaries, or to touch, even remotely, any
secular interests. No course whereon worldly am
bition might start forward is suggested as possibly
to be opened before the Society, or before any of its
members individually.

The spiritual good of men, and the glory of God,
are — and these alone — the ends and purposes of
this Institute. These purposes are professed in
terms which might exclude all suspicion of sin
ister or fraudulent intention. Everywhere purely
religious professions are advanced in a purely relig
ious style, and with an abundant use of phrases
drawn from Holy Scripture.

If in any case whatever the consequences of a,
given line of conduct may be anticipated with cer
tainty, we maybe sure that an association of Chris
tian men impelled by motives such as those that
are in this instance professed, and pursuing objects
so intelligibly good and benign, and confining its
labors strictly within the limits of ecclesiastical
usage, and always in punctilious observance of the
rites of the national faith, could never draw upon
itself the execration of nations, or could come to
be denounced as an enemy by governments (hat
were once its patrons. Zealous sects, promulgaling
opinions in contrariety to the established belief, and
acting independently of authorities in church and
state, have indeed often so made themselves obnox
ious to princes and to mobs. But no instance can
be cited analogous to that of this Society, if indeed
its motives have been such only as it has professed,
and if its intentions are those only which it avows.

350 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

On this supposition, what an enigma is the history
of the Society within the bosom of Catholic com
munities, if we advert to the events of the years
following in quick succession from 1606 to 1773 !

But if, in fact, the events that signalized that
course of time are indisputable, and therefore de
mand explication, then must we revert to the ca
nonical documents of the Society, and inquire
whether they do not exhibit so monstrous an in
coherence, and such an internal disproportion, as
baffles the attempts both of philosophic candor and
of Christian charity to admit the plea — that all is
sincere and ingenuous in the professions- of this
community.

A little attention to the several heads above men
tioned may suffice for bringing distinctly to view
this alleged disproportion. First, then, among the
avowed purposes of the Society, is the care of souls.

Nothing that does not directly bear upon the
spiritual welfare of men, as immortal beings, is
alluded to in connection with this principal function
of the Society. These labors of evangelic benevo
lence are therefore precisely identical with those
that were undertaken by the first promulgators of
Christianity. It cannot be alleged that the care of
souls, as immortal beings, in one age of the world,
essentially differs from the care of souls in another
age, or that it demands at one time provisions or
preparations wholly unlike those which were proper
and necessary at another. The miraculous endow
ments of the apostles and evangelists had a mani
fest intention in the establishment of a new faith ;
but these are not in any way included among the

PURPORT OF 'JESUITISM. 351

means indispensible for giving effect to the pastoral
ojficff; nor need a substitute be sought for in their
place. Fervent love, firm faith, courage, zeal, and
consistency of conduct, with an aptness to teach,
are the qualifications of the Christian minister, or
shepherd of souls.

So far as appears, and if we are to accept the
professions of the Society as true and ingenuous,
the occupations of a Jesuit, in relation to the care
of souls, differ not at all from those of the first
preachers of the Gospel. What need, then, of the
strange conditions which the former brings himself
under, with a view, as he says, to his better dis
charge of these same offices ? Let us put these
intelligible questions distinctly. What need then
of the Vow of Poverty as a qualification for the
spiritual oversight of souls? Instead of taking
upon himself a spontaneous obligation which, in
practice, must be null, and which must, .when null,
become a mockery — instead of doing this, Paul
thought it enough that he had learned " how to
abound, and how to suffer need ;" and that, for the
furtherance of the Gospel, he had accustomed him
self to the endurance of hunger, thirst, nakedness :
— he could traverse countries, homeless and de
fenceless, whenever these hard conditions were to
be encountered. But did he think that a vow of
perpetual and gratuitous poverty could be useful
over and beyond this readiness to endure " hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ?" It is certain that
he did not : it is certain that he had encumbered
himself with no factitious obligation, which would
have brought the simplicity and ingenuousness of

352 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

his character into reasonable doubt. Some among
those whom he exhorted to repentance would not
have been slow to surmise that a man who paced
the streets, begging his bread when he had plenty
of gold in his purse, or when he might easily have
supplied his daily wants in another manner, har
bored some sinister intention, and was either a fool,
a fanatic, or a knave. Let it be considered whether
this vow of poverty has not a murky aspect when
it is professed by those whose office it is to proclaim
glad tidings in all simplicity of heart. Let it be
asked whether a profession which cannot be main
tained at all without the aid of circuitous pretexts,
and of a network of legal fictions, is likely to exert
an auspicious influence upon the minds of converts,
unless indeed they themselves have been dealt \vith
delusively and fanatically. This vow of poverty,
which no doubt has been found to be both useful and
necessary as a means for accomplishing sinister
and secular ends, and for fastening upon the souls
of the people a pernicious tyranny, is clearly not
only superfluous, but must be prejudicial in relation
— purely and solely — to the care of souls.

The utility of the vow of celibacy, as a means
conducing to the same end, will not easily be ad
mitted by those who are well read in Church his
tory. The question, however, not being peculiar to
Jesuitism, need not in this place be considered.

No such selection of instruments — no such train
ing of these instruments — no such conditions as
these instruments are subjected to in the Jesuit In
stitute, can there be any need of where nothing
more is intended than a simple-hearted and faithful

PURPORT ON JESUITISM. 353

discharge of the pastoral duties. And not only are
such preparations wholly unnecessary in relation
to the spiritual instruction and guidance of souls,
but they must operate, as might easily be shown,
and, indeed, as is obvious, prejudically in relation
to any such function. Infinitely better were it, both
for the religious teacher, and for the taught, that
the two should stand together on the ground of
common sympathies ; instead of their holding inter
locution from the opposite sides of an unfathomable
abyss.

But now7, if there be reason to imagine that, not
withstanding1 its professions to the contrary, the
Jesuit Society has looked on beyond the dim " eter
nity" of which it talks so incessantly, and that it
keeps a steady eye upon the better-defined objects
of this present life, then indeed would it secure for
itself, by all means, the function of the " care of
souls," and would make precisely such preparations
for the successful discharge of this office as we find
it to have made.

In this particular aspect the Constitutions cease
to be an enigma, and become quite intelligible ;
that is to*%ay, when once we have assumed the
hypothesis that the real intentions of the Society
are directed, not toward heaven, but toward earth.

The care of souls is the very office which those
would be forward to undertake whose intention it
was to possess themselves, not of the shadow, but
of the very substance of universal empire. The
abstract idea of POWER has been but poorly realized
in even the most perfect forms of government hith
erto established among men. Civil governments>

354 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

when the most absolute, do not touch upon the ex
terior of such a conception of DOMINION as the
mind may entertain. Secular power professes to be
content with that submission or obedience which
ensures to itself its tangible revenues, its state, and
its show ; its pageantry, its gorgeous pomps, and
its trophies ; as for the rest, it cares little. Eccle
siastical power looks somewhat further than this,-
and demands a more intimate kind of assent and
compliance.. Yet, knowing that beyond the lip, and
the visage, and the knee, it can secure nothing
without infinite painstaking on its own part, it is
willing to accept the hypocrisies of the exterior man
as sufficient, even although conscious that the hom
age it receives is spurious. The Church has asked
either for a genuine or for a counterfeit submission ;
— the former, if it could be had ; but, if not, the
latter.

Yet something far more real than this there was
room to imagine — namely, a true dominion, reach
ing to the very depth of men's hearts, and which,
when so possessed of the interior, might be indif
ferent concerning the crust and the shell ; — this was
an object which, if thought of as attainable, was
fitted to kindle the profoundest ambition ; and, on
the supposition that an object so vast and so awfully
consistent with itself was contemplated by the
authors of the Jesuit Institute, then every part of
that complicated scheme is seen to be a means well
adapted to such an end. Assuming this theory,
there is no longer any perplexing disproportion be
tween the means and the end ; and then the care
of souls, undertaken by men who liave passed

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 355

through a discipline so stern, and who have bound
themselves by vows so fearful, is the first and prin
cipal labor which should prepare the ground for the
intended superstructure. On this suppositi<fn, Jes
uitism no longer (as otherwise it must) stultifies
itself; and it is able — as we might be sure it would
be — to give a rational account of itself — TO IT
SELF. It has not put itself to infinite pains — for
nothing.

Let then this idea be taken up as the theory of
Jesuitism ; and let it be imagined that its intention
is to stretch over the human family a perfect domi
nation, independent of physical force, and therefore
' able to set it at defiance ; and which, as more deep
ly seated than any other, should at length come in
to supplant every other — to absorb all other author
ities, and, in the end, to rule the world from the
centre of a single bosom. Now, if such be the idea
of Loyola's Institute, then it is obvious that the care
of souls and the direction of consciences will be
foremost among the offices with which it will
charge itself. It will engage to do everything for
souls, " without fee or reward," which souls can
need, or can wish to be done for them. It will un
dertake to cure all maladies, to relieve all perplexi
ties ; it will burden itself with the heaviest respon
sibilities : it will, without scruple, make itself uni
versal proxy for men in every condition of spiritual
incapacity.

A scheme founded on such a principle of univer
sality, inasmuch as it may not leave any single in
stance or any possible case of conscience unprovided
for — even the most extreme und desperate— must

356 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

not have any conscience of its own to be cared for
or respected. Jh authority that is limited inter
nally, by its respect for certain fixed rules, and by a
regard to its own integrity, circumscribes, so far, its
faculty of adaptation to all states and circumstances ;
for while it can and may do such or such a thing,
it may not, and will not, do such or such another ;
and therefore its domination can take effect only
within defined boundaries.

Why is it, then — need we ask ? — why is it that
the Jesuit Institute prepares its agents for their
work by first scooping clean out of their bosoms
every atom of individual conscience ? why does it
enjoin upon them a "blind obedience?" Surely
there is no mystery here ! The Society does so be
cause the work it undertakes, as universal curator
of souls, could not be carried forward by men within
whose bosoms there remained any power of resist
ance, or any individual sense of the inconvertibility
of right and wrong, or who, in a word, had a con
science of their own. Every day's round of duty
must present occasions fraught with anxious per
plexity to those whose habit it should be to appeal
to their personal convictions of right. Such an appeal
would often utterly forbid those things to be said
and done which must be said and done for " the
ease of souls" by the ministers of a power that will
in no possible case risk the loss of its influence, or
the defection of its subjects.

Such a power, moreover, aiming at once at uni
versality, and at extending an absolute rule down
into the depths of all hearts, must have the means
of surveying its field : in other words, it must know,

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 357

or at least be able to know, all hearts. Its own
agents, therefore, as they must be to it the medium
of its omniscience, must themselves have become
thoroughly translucent. That "manifestation of
the conscience" to which so much importance is
attached by the Society, and that system of " dela
tion" which is so sedulously maintained within its
pale, are only the necessary means for effecting
this transparency of all bosoms. A perfect SOUL-
DESPOTISM must needs have at its command a
panopticon such as this. The instrument is fitted
to this purpose ; it is fitted to no other. If it were
alleged that no valuable purpose could be answered,
even in the view of the most despotic power, by this
intimate inspection of the hearts of men, not one
of a thousand of which would offer to the eye a par
tide deserving a moment's regard, it is enough to
reply that, in these preparations for the care, direc
tion, and government of souls, that one class of souls
has not been forgotten upon the dispositions and
machinations of which the revolutions of the great
"world depend. Shall this Society, in proof of the
pure spirituality of its views, drive from its door
nobles and potentates, ministers of state, dignitaries,
captains, and the subaltern agents of government,
leaving them to implore, in vain, its aid in giving
ease to their consciences? Shall the Society repel all
such frequenters of its precincts ; or, not repelling
them, shall it sternly refuse to listen to any recitals
or confessions that are not strictly of a spiritual
kind? or, if it listens in part to disclosures touching
secular interests, shall it save itself the trouble of
learning the whole which its clients may be willing

358 IGNATIUS LOYOLA,

to make known? It will not do so: it has not done
so.

Instead of attributing to the Society any such
modesty as this, we must assume it as certain,
irrespectively of the evidence of history, that, in
the anxious selection of its agents, in the severity
of the discipline through which it compels them to
pass, in the monstrous conditions to which they are
subjected — especially the abnegation of conscience
— and in the Extraordinary measures it pursues for
possessing itself of a species of omniscience, the
Jesuit Society has had prominently in view the care,
guidance, succor, and control of the souls of those
who possess and rule the world.

Next to the care and direction of souls, the
primary function which a spiritual domination must
undertake is that which shall enable it to build for
perpetuity — namely, the education of children and
youth : and this constitutes in fact, the second of
the professed intentions of the Society. What are
the qualifications of a good teacher ? If they are
not the most common, neither are they the most
rare : intelligence, acquirements, assiduity, benevo
lence, and, not least, an ingenuous simplicity of
character. What beyond these gifts and endow
ments? Not a practised astuteness, not a skilled
refinement in casuistry, not a monstrous personal
condition, *not a renunciation of personal convic
tions and conscience : such things are not merely
not beneficial, but must be. in the last degree, of
ill-tendency in relation to the duties and offices of
education.

But if the first and the last lesson of a Jesuit

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 359

education be — to prepare a people for itself, to mould
the several orders of society into a form the most
readily available for its own ends, then the mere
schoolmaster, the simple-hearted, assiduous, and
well-instructed teacher, will not be the tool adapted
to purposes so occult and so difficult. It is the
Jesuit teacher, who, while winning a well-earned
reputation simply as a teacher (none have sur
passed, on this ground, some of the Society's teach
ers and professors) shall be qualifift to give to the
education he conveys a special direction, and to in
fuse into the minds of youth sentiments altogether
of a peculiar cast. If the subjugation of the
human family be, indeed, the end and law of the
Society, Jesuit education must be a habitude of
moving in trammels : the philosophy which is pro-
poundecrto youth mnst be devitalized : in the litera
ture which it doles out in morsels, the light and fire
of genius must be extinguished ; and whatever is
great, free, noble, must be kept out of view. All
objects must be exhibited — as in a museum — in
glass cases ; not as in life and nature. The teacher
must always- stand bodily between the learner and
reality, who must know, see, and feel nothing,
except through a medium. How far the Jesuit
educational system has corresponded to such a
description is not now our question. What is
affirmed is this only : — That the Jesuit Institute,
when considered as an engine of universal educa
tion, is adapted to its purpose, if the ends, which it
does not avow, are, in truth, those which it has ac
tually had in view ; but far otherwise, if it intends
only what it speaks of.

360 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

A lively missionary zeal marked the earliest out
break of Loyola's religious ardor, and it is certain
that his desire to go forth and attempt the conver
sion of Mahometans and heathens preceded his con
ception of the Jesuit Institute. When at length,
and in consequence of the defeat of his purpose to
evangelize the East, the greater idea of subjuga
ting Christendom absorbed his thoughts, then, as it
seems, the missionary project, which a regard to
consistency forifed him to relinquish, was taken up
as a sort of appendage to Jesuitism. Besides, the
heathen world was an outlying territory, which, if
actually reclaimable, would vastly extend the range
of the Society's domination — might yield it a rev
enue of reputation, and would moreover open to
the General of the Order, at all times, a means of
sending into honorable banishment any among his
colleagues whose high temper, whose conscientious
firmness, or whose bright reputation, might make
it desirable that they should be allowed to win a
martyr's crown somewhere on the other side of the
globe.

Manifestly, the Jesuit Institute was not framed
with any leading intention to adapt it to the evan
gelization of the heathen world ; and it is remarka
ble that whenever and wherever its agents have
been so employed, they have found it expedient or
unavoidable to hold its characteristic principles in
abeyance ; or even to put open contempt upon its
rules. Among the heathen the vow of poverty
has been a mockery ; and contumacy has been
the interpretation it has put upon its vow of obe
dience to the Pope. The Jesuit solemnly promises

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 361

to go whithersoever the Sovereign Pontiff shall
send him — to India, to China, or to America ; but
when he has reached his destination, he makes a
very jest of papal authority.

Jesuits have done well and worthily among the
heathen ; and they have done ill too. What they
have done well, they have done as Christian men ;
what ill, as agents of the Society.

But if, as is manifest and unquestionable, Jesuit
ism be a scheme framed for effecting purposes alto
gether unlike those which it avows, and if its
history more than confirms the conjectures to which
an analysis of its principles gives rise, then why
should we not denounce its authors as wicked
machinators, and its agents, one and all, as the
cloaked enemies of their species! Condemnatory
conclusions of this sort are inadmisible, not merely
because they are offensive to Christian charity, nor
because they are contradicted by the broad princi
ples of a sound philosophy ; but because they are
repugnant to particular facts.

Sweeping conclusions such as these would not
hold good if advanced against the subaltern agents
of the Society ; that is to say those of ordinary in
telligence, of fervent temperament, and of simple
character : for there is quite enough in the avowed
objects of the Institute to recommend it to the con
scientious regards of such men. Their line of la
bor would always be of a kind which may easily
offer itself to the affectionate approval of honest and
benevolent men ; and especially of those whose
minds are fraught with the principles of the Romish
Church. To such minds, moreover, the enormous
16

362 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

disproportion (which to those who look at the sys
tem from a distance is so astounding) between the
scheme itself, and its declared purposes, would not
be manifest. Jesuits, therefore, of a middle intel
lectual stature, and of ingenuous tempers, may
individually deserve respect and esteem, notwith
standing their implication in a system so pernicious.

But neither must a harsh conclusion be admitted
against the AUTHORS of this scheme, as if they
must have been deliberately conscious that they
were preparing a wicked and treasonable attempt
against the liberties and welfare of mankind.

Human nature, in rare, if not in frequent in
stances, brings forces into play, of which the unob
servant take no notice, or which they do not under
stand, and of which passive and inert minds are
incapable of forming any conception. For example,
the idea of a \videly-extended and absolute control
over the spirits of men, or the abstract conception
of POWER, has a fascination in it which, to some
minds, is quite irresistible : it is an idea which
shows its own inherent quality by its first master
ing the bosom into which it has gained entrance,
and where it swells to giant proportions, and soon
plays the tyrant, imposing restraints upon all im
pulses that would divide empire with it. The mass
of men, variously impelled as they are by appetites,
desires, petty interests, little imagine with how sov
ereign a force the idea and love of power rules the
few minds that are born to admit it.

Loyola is undoubtedly an eminent instance of
this sort. His animal impulses were of no feeble
kind, and his susceptibility to emotions of the relig-

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 363

ious class was unusual ; so that his existence ap
pears to have been a sort of chronic ectasy. Never
theless, if a certain moment of his course be as
sumed as a starting point, a purely intellectual im
pulse thenceforward ruled his conduct in the most
absolute manner.

One thought— the idea of a universal spiritual
domination — had opened its vastness to his eye ;
the Jesuit Institute sprung up out of that thought,
as its germ ; and thenceforward every vulgar desire
weltered and died away within him ; and even
those swelling emotions which might have made
him chief among enthusiasts were hushed ; or they
rolled their awe-stricken billows silently through
the deeps of his bosom.

There are many degrees among those who are
born for power. The less noble of this class covet
it for themselves as a personal good ; and then, in
pursuit of it, they run the course of worldly ambi
tion, often knee-deep in blood. But there are some
(few indeed) whose intellectual structure is of a far
more refined sort, and to whom the mere contem
plation of a deep-seated and wide-spread domina
tion, near to the centre of which they are placed,
is bliss enough. Even self is forgotten while this
pure idea, embodied in fact, is gazed at. That
Loyola's passion for power was of this soil may
well be believed, and the supposition that it was so
furnishes perhaps a clue to his otherwise strange
behavior on the two occasions, first of his election
to the Generalship, and afterwards of his proposed
abdication. It may at least be imagined, and per
haps believed, that his primary impulse was the

364 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

desire to see his idea of a universal empire put in
progress toward its completion ; a secondary im
pulse, balanced by the toils of government, was the
personal wish to hold the reigns in his own hand.

On any supposition of this sort, therefore, we
repel, on one side, the claim advanced by the ad
mirers of " St. Ignatius," who attribute to him a
heaven-born zeal ; and on the other, the denuncia-"
tions of the adversaries of Jesuitism, who allow
themselves to speak of Loyola as Satan's chief min
ister, even as the Spanish doctors of the sixteenth
century speak of Mahomet or of Luther.

The idea of a universal spiritual empire does not,
by itself, involve any element of malignity — a mind
natively benevolent might entertain it. And, more
over, it is an abstraction of a sort around which
there may be painted, in fair colors, a broad margin
of pious assiduity and self-denying benevolence.
To Loyola's own eye, probably, the Idola Specus
never showed themselves otherwise than as envel
oped in chaplets of love and devotion. Tortuous
and guileful, astute and artificial, too often were
his modes of administration ; but while treading
these crooked paths, his eye was still fixed upon a
bright idea beyond.

It belongs to human nature in rare instances
thus to feel and thus to act ; but we must not for
get that the propensity which sways one mind in a
million, finds a reciprocal sentiment, or correspond
ing impulse, in the breasts of that million. There
is a fascination of submission, as well as there is a
fascination of power ; there is an instinct asking to
be guided and governed, which is not less marked

PURPORT OP JESUITISM. 365

than is the impulse to guide and to govern. If no
such instincts or impulses had belonged to human
nature, there could have been no social combina
tions ; or no governments, except such as are
founded upon brute force. The fascination which
impels the one to govern, and which inclines the
million to be governed, is intense always in pro
portion to the vagueness, or to the spirituality, or
the mysteriousness that attach to the polity under
which men are associated. Where there is no ob
scurity, and nothing that may not be instantly
made intelligible to all, there is no room for loyalty
or devotedness. But, on the contrary, within the
precincts of a darkly shrouded domination, and
where a veil hangs between the chair of power and
the crowd, there an awe-stricken affection binds
the spirit of the multitude even to a much-dreaded
authority. Is Jesuitism inexplicable ? it is so, and
therefore its rule, when not broken up by the in
discretion of its agents, has been of the firmest sort.
The subjects of this veiled power are drawn along
in its wake by a luxury of their own imagination ;
they are not dragged.onward, but they go, charmed
and lulled : they have come within the flow of a
mighty but tranquil current which bears them softly
on — -whither, how vain were it for them to ask,
since the tide is irresistible !

We may be sure, therefore, that when the time
comes for Jesuitism to make known, without re
serve, its purposes, and when it shall admit all the
world to inspect its machinery, it will be Jesuitism
no more. Yet, in these times of universal disclos*

366

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

lire, how long will it be possible for any system,
secular or religious, to wrap itself in clouds ?

If it be true, a"s appears, that the CONSTITUTIONS
of the Jesuit Society do not enable us to discover
any rational proportion, or relationship oi fitness,
between the machinery of the Institute, and its
avowed purposes, and if, therefore, mystery must be
regarded as attaching to its very essence, and if
illusory professions belong to it by inherent neces
sity ; then this question presents itself — namely,
whether, in times like these, when concealment
and prevarication are being rent away from every
form of government — when the loftiest and the
proudest potentates are rudely called upon to ex
plain themselves, and to become intelligible —
whether, in such times, a scheme of government
which has ever been, and which must be, disingen
uous — which is bound by its rudimental principle
to deal falsely with the world, will find it possible
to withstand a tendency so adverse to it; or, in a
word, whether it can continue to exist ?

The obvious answer to this question would be — •
that it cannot.

Is not every government, it may be said, learning
this new lesson, that, henceforward, it must draw its
stability, not from the mystification, but from the
disclosure of its purposes, its means, its resources, its
prospects ? must not every polity use a thorough in
genuousness, as well toward its foes, as toward its
friends ? Does it not seem as if " Powers of dark-
ness" were fast ceasing to be powers at all ? and is
not Church power showing that it also has become
conscious of this same truth, and that it has ad-

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 367

milted the dogma of a revolutionary era? Is not
Romanism preparing herself for an appeal, in her
own favor, to men's understandings, and showing
that she intends to challenge their submission, for
the future, on the ground, not of blind faith merely,
but of reason?

It would seem natural to conclude, then, that a
polity which must cease to be itself, when it becomes
explicit and honest, must consent, in these days, to
bring its dealings with the world to an end. But
this inference cannot be admitted as certain. Jes
uitism may indeed be compelled to slide itself off
from its original position, and to establish itself
upon broader ground, as a refined scheme of spirit
ual and intellectual domination ; but it may, and
probably will, make good its continued existence,
and may renew its lease, not merely in spite of the
prevailing anti-mysterious tendency of the times,
but by the very aid of this tendency, operating upon
it in the way of reaction. If the age we live in be
the age of publicity, there will therefore be exhib
ited, in some quarter, and in a decisive form, that
appetite of human nature which seeks for a deep
and awe-inspiring gloom, as a refuge from the
glare.

Spiritual domination is not to be thought of (so to
think of it would be the dictate of a shallow phi
losophy) as a plot, hatched by the few against the
rights and liberties of the many. The chiefs of
such a domination are not contrivers of an unasked-,
for scheme, whose machinations all men would
gladly circumvent and crush. They are not such ;
but they are those who engage to provide and to

368

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

furnish that which minds of a certain class — and
they are not few — yearn to be supplied with, and
which they must, somewhere, find ready to their
use. Conspiracies are ephemeral; but spiritual
domination endures from age to age, for it is not a
conspiracy ; it is the supply of a constant want.
But if it be so, then it is reasonable to suppose that,
at a time when mysteriousness is passing off from
almost everything, the one power or polity which
still shrouds itself in darkness, will refresh its forces
— will extend its influence, and will draw itself
together in meditation of new schemes of aggran
dizement.

In these " last days" the hurricane of revolution
has unroofed, or has utterly overthrown, almost
every sanctuary of blind faith, and of devoted feel
ing. There remains, however, still one CAVERN ;
and the Jesuit Society guards the entrance of it ; —
a cavern where twilight sheds its fascinations upon
unknown objects of awe. The herd of men seek
for and enjoy the glare of day : — but not so all men
— not so women. While the greater number ap
prove only what they understand (or what they
think they understand) and will support only what
they discern to be useful, others, and they are not a
few, distaste whatever is thoroughly intelligible, and
captiously reject whatever is presented to them as
unquestionably useful. Men of this order attach
themselves the most passionately to that which will
never show them the reason why they should do
so ; and it is with an irresistible instinct that they
court, invite, and yield themselves to, whatever

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 369

it is which most men turn from with dread and
hatred.

It may then be assumed as probable that, not
withstanding the general adverse tendency of the
times, and even drawing a new strength from that
tendency, Jesuitism, as a purely spiritual domina
tion, will perpetuate itself. It is another question
whether it has not seen its last days as a secular
scheme and polity, existing among other polities,
and exerting an influence over them in a direct
manner.

Two revolutions marking the present era are
both of them of a kind decisively unfavorable to
the continued political influence of a body so no
torious for the tortuous and wily modes of its pro
cedures. The first of these revolutions — and how
auspicious a change is it ! — consists in the contempt
into which has fallen the disingenuous and knavish
style which, in past times, characterized the diplo
matic intercourse of nations. Whatever is honest
in politics wins approval, and carries with it a tri
umphant force. Such, at least, is the growing feel
ing of the European commonwealth. State craft
is falling into dis-esteem, and is losing its advantage.
At the same rate therefore, it would seem, that
Jesuitism must relinquish its hope of ruling the
world by whispering its counsels in the ears of
statesmen and princes.

But even if it might still attempt to do so, another
revolution, more conspicuous and extensive in its
import than the one just named, has come about,
which either quite precludes all such endeavors, or
which must restrict them within the narrowest
16*

370 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

limits. It is this, that those movements which af
fect the welfare of nations spring, less and less from
the individual will — from the mind and purpose, of
the governing few, and are more and more depend
ent — not so much upon the articulate voice of the
people — as upon abstruse and uncontrollable influ
ences — moral — physical-— commercial, and fiscal.
Sixty years ago — or less, the question was — " Who
are they that govern the world ?" Now the only
significant question is — "What is it that governs
the world ?"

Once it was an all-important matter, in the view
of those who would give direction, this way or that,
to European politics, to command the ear and con
science of a monarch, or of his minister, or of his
mistress. Of how much avail now may be any
secret influence of this sort ? It is less than noth
ing ! Princes and statesmen themselves, with little
inclination to listen to a conscience-keeper — stand
aghast in front of those mighty evolutions of the
social system which are shaking the world. Civil
ized communities were once as ships governed by a
hand at the helm : — they are now as rafts, borne on
the heaving bosom of an impetuous tide.

It is probable, therefore, that the Jesuit Society,
not slow to read the lesson which events are placing
in its view, will abandon what it may deem a des
perate endeavor to rule the world as from the depths
of closets and cabinets, and may at once address
itself to a task which, if it be more arduous and
more perilous, is more stimulating — that of ruling
it by placing itself in immediate communication
with the masses of the people, and by offering itself

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 371

to ride foremost upon the surges of popular agi
tation.

Henceforward, as we may surmise, it will not be
in the way of intrigue that the Society will make
itself felt ; — for intrigue is not an engine that can
be brought to bear upon millions of men ; but as
the promulgators of a political and social creed, ac
ceptable to these masses in a sense of which it may
seem to be susceptible, when expounded to rude
ears : but which, in its inner and true meaning,
carries entire the principles of an absolute despot
ism. In times gone by, Jesuitism sought to rule
the world by pushing itself near and nearer still to
thrones ; or by actually edging itself on to seats of
power. But in times to come, as we may imagine,
it will seek to compass the same design by shoulder
ing the mob forward in every popular assault upon
thrones. So long as monarchies rested solidly in
their places upon the field of Europe, the Jesuit
Society wished to stand upon the same terra firma;
but now that this ground trembles beneath the foot,
it will commend itself, upon its own raft, to the
mighty deep — the "many waters" — the people !

In the present aspect of Europe it may seem
probable that monarchies, by a natural reaction,
will again become consolidated ; yet never again, in
those countries where they have been overthrown
or violently shaken, can they resume the strength
they possessed as products of time. Meanwhile
the continuity of spiritual power has not been
broken ; it has not, for it is far too deeply seated in
human nature to be liable to any such disaster in
the convulsions that shake the political fabric.

372

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Spiritual power, therefore, detaching itself from
institutions in the stability of which it can no longer
confide, will lay its foundations broader : it will seek
to rest itself, henceforward, without intervention —
upon its own proper basis, namely, the religious in
stinct deep seated in the bosoms of men universally.
If indeed this religious instinct were brought under
the sovereign control of heaven's own truth, no form
of that usurping despotism with which we have now
to do could hold its place on earth : but it is not so ;
and therefore ghostly tyranny still commands its
ancient field, and may yet, at its pleasure, pursue
its ends.

On this ground a question such as this may pre
sent itself (and it is more easily proposed than an
swered), Whether spiritual power — we mean usurp
ing power — shall, in time to come, fall back upon
some one of its superannuated forms, seeking to
avail itself of the still remaining recommendations
of antiquity ; or whether it shall not rather con
struct itself anew, and build for itself another house,
and call into its service agents of another school,
and profess a creed — spliced on, as it were, to the
ancient creed, but essentially differing from it ?

It would be by no means difficult to sketch the
outlines of a New Faith, well adapted to the pre
vailing notions and habits of continental communi
ties. Such a faith would retain everything belong
ing to Romanism that is sensuous and imaginative ;
— everything of costume and of ceremonial that
does not offend good taste, or draw upon itself sar
casm : it would retain, moreover, a shadowy, though
not a dogmatic, orthodoxy : it might perhaps permit

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 373

a Nicene profession to be " sung," but would never
allow it to be " said."

The lately-divulged doctrine of "Development"
would seem as if it had been now announced as
the requisite preliminary to such a relinquishment
of ancient practices and principles as we are sup
posing to be probable. It is manifest that if " the
Church" be endowed with a creative or re-creative
vital energy, enabling and authorizing it, from age
to age, to evolve what is new in belief or in worship,
or to bring to light what had previously slumbered
in darkness ; if, for example, the Church of the ninth
century ought to be thought of as an authentic
product of the church of the third, although marked
by new features — then this same vital force — this
power of adaptation, may, as ages roll on, and as
human reason ripens, show its energies in the mode
of absorption or retrenchment. During the ninth
century the Church put forth a verdant top, dark
ening all the skies ; but in the nineteenth century
the tree may call in its sap from its luxuriant head,
while it strikes its roots far into a new soil.

If, in this age of reason, certain dogmas or modes
of worship may seem to have fulfilled their inten
tion, and to have become encumbrances, rather than
aids, why may not the inherent "Development"
power rescind, withdraw, remove, such adjuncts?
It is not easy to see what difficulty, either logical or
theoretic, stands in the way to prevent the Church's
faculty of development from now shifting its posi
tion, and acting as a faculty of abrogation. Once
it put its right hand forth to bring from its treasury
things new : henceforward it will be pulling its left

374 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

hand from its bosom, to withdraw these worn and
faded articles from their places. In a rude age the
Church — always wise in her day — became flagrantly
polytheistic : in a philosophic, or rather a scientific
age, the same Church, equally wise, will become
pantheistic.

This is the very result that might seem highly
probable, as consequent upon a well-calculated en
deavor to reinstate spiritual powrer throughout Eu
rope, by means of an alliance between that scientific
pantheism which, at this time, is the prevalent be
lief of the continental nations, and the Church, pro
fessing its faculty of adaptation to the changing
aspects of the world. Let the Church absorb or
abrogate what, although held to be true and good,
as related to an age long gone by, is now felt to be
redundant, and which will not amalgamate with
the present scientific temper of mankind. Nothing
would be needed beyond that which such a faculty
of adaptation might supply, for compiling a creed,
and for instituting a worship, well adapted to the
taste and propensities of the European Continental
nations.

If an enterprise of this sort were seriously thought
of, the Jesuit body might consider itself to be pecu
liarly qualified for attempting the task.

But shall not Christianity — shall not the religion
of the Scriptures, and shall not our " English Prot
estantism" withstand and prevent, and bring to
nothing, any such machination ? Let it be believed
and hoped that this truth shall triumph over its
combined assailants !

But if it do, and in so far as such a triumph may

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 375

depend upon the course pursued by those who should
be the champions of truth, a moral courage will be
demanded of them far exceeding that measure of
this excellent quality that has been displayed by
some of the best and wisest of mankind. The sub
ject of this Essay points directly to an instance,
than which none can be more signal or instructive.
It is one which, in this place, *especially invites at
tention. The reader will have anticipated the wri
ter's intention to say something of Pascal, and the
" Provincial Letters."

CHAPTER V.

PASCAL AND THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS.

THE Provincial Uetters won for their author an
imperishable literary fame ; yet they secured for him
self and his friends a very brief, and an inconclusive
controversial triumph. No reader of these composi
tions can wonder that Pascal's fame as a writer should
have been so enduring ; but it is not perhaps every
reader who discerns the real cause of that argument
ative failure which so soon brought them to be
considered simply in the light of unmatched liter
ary performances. Although it be true that Jesu
itism must forever sustain the load of contempt
thrown upon it by Pascal's sarcastic pen, the So
ciety very soon placed itself beyond the range of
an assault which at first had threatened to be fatal
to its very existence.

Jesuitism survived the plaudits with which the
Provincial Letters were greeted throughout Europe.
They were read with acclamation ; nevertheless,
the Provincial Letters and the Society have floated
down the stream of time, side by side ; it, indeed,
was grievously vexed and annoyed, and yet neither
was it quashed, nor materially injured by them.
If a homely simile could be admitted in this in
stance, the Provincial Letters might be compared to
a large cutting from a thorny hedge with which
some luckless beast has so entangled his shaggy

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 377

coat that his most desperate tossings and caperings
fail to shake it from its hold ; at length however he
goes his way, tormented indeed, and yet not pierced
to his serious injury.

This failure to effect what he had intended,
namely — the overthrow of the credit and influence
of the Jesuits, has been attributed, and justly so in
measure, to the author's too great haste, or his in-
caution — not to say unfairness — in throwing upon
the Society all the odium with which the extrava
gances of certain of its writers might seem to cover
it. Moreover, Pascal's mode of argument may be
thought inequitable, in so far as he heaps upon
Jesuitism a mass of blame which a more ingenuous
controvertist would have taken care to distribute
among several religious bodies, not less culpable
than the Jesuits : in certain instances the earlier
orders had forestalled everything in the way of per
nicious casuistry. Jesuitism was especially culpable
only so far as it had anew put forth notions which,
but for it, would soon perhaps have melted into
oblivion.

Yet these are not the principal causes of Pascal's
failure to inflict a mortal wound upon his adversary.

Charmed as the reader of the Provincial Letters
is, and must be, by the wit and eloquence, the force
and fire of every page, he hastens on, and forgets
to ask why it is that, while the Jesuit tree is thus
shaken by a giant arm — its fruit covering the
ground, and its fair boughs rent away from the
trunk— why it is that, while such an onslaught is
made upon the head and branches, the trunk and
root have not attracted the assailant's eye ; or

378 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

scarcely for a moment ? On every page Pascal's
contemporaries, the " Reverend Fathers," are mock
ingly saluted with their wonted appellation. But
these " Fathers," had they no predecessors ? had
not all one Father ? Are we to suppose that Pascal,
even if he had heard the name of St. Ignatius, had
never seen the Spiritual Exercises, or the Letter on
Obedience ; or that he knew nothing of the Consti
tutions, or of the Directory? Such a supposition
is not admissible ; but if it be not, then must it
seem amazing that a mind such as was Pascal's
could have failed to perceive that every particle of
that intolerable casuistry which he reprobates, as
he finds it on the pages of Escobar, of Molina, of
Le Moine, of Barry, of Bauny, of Sanchez, and of
Yasquez, and every dogma of their spurious mor
ality are the products — the direct and inevitable
products, of Jesuitism — such as Loyola made, and
left it!

But if, as we cannot but suppose, Pascal had
made himself in some degree familiar with the ca
nonical documents of the Society, and if, as we are
also compelled to believe, the obvious connection of
cause and effect in this instance had presented itself
to his view, then why does he not point it out ?
Why not indicate that fact of which he must have
been conscious ? Why treat the subalterns with
unsparing severity, while he spares the principals '?
Why rush with a ruthless vehemence upon the
Jesuitism of the seventeeth century, while, over the
same Jesuitism of the sixteenth, he throws the veil
of a reverential silence ? No acceptable reply can
be given to these questions.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 379

Alas, the infirmity of human nature ! How has
truth suffered in the world, from age to age, from
the want of moral courage, even among the most
conscientious and enlightened of men ! In fact, it
is these who, by their timidity, just where and when
they should have feared none but God— it is these
wrho have betrayed Christianity, and have sent it
down to their successors, laden with corruptions : it
is these who, although it was but a slender service
they could render it by endorsing it with their bright
names, have inflicted upon it a deep and lasting
injury by sustaining, in this manner, the credit of
those spurious systems with which themselves stood
connected. It was in this manner that the illus
trious confessors of Port Royal lost themselves, and
lost truth for France ; and thus that they left their
country open to that deluge of Atheism which in
the next century swept everything before it.

Oh, but — " St. Ignatius" was one of the Church's
own — a u Saint," warranted to be such by the vicar
of Christ ! Moreover the Society, and the Spiritual
Exercises, and the Constitutions, had, after a care
ful examination on the part of the only authority
on earth in matters of religion, been authenticated,
and had been commended to the reverential regards
of Christendom. This was more than enough.
This was why the "Reverend Fathers" are de
nounced, and are held up to contempt and execra
tion, although the system which they had too faith
fully expounded, and the men whose genuine dis
ciples they were, must be neither blamed — nor
barely mentioned, or — not more than once !

If in some cautiously-worded paragraph, convey-

380 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ing a qualified disapproval, Loyola's name had
found a place in the Provincial Letters, what con
solation would it have afforded to the affectionate
admirers of a man so good and great as was Pas
cal ! Alas ! it does not appear in any such man
ner ! A reader of the Provincial Letters, if by
chance he were ignorant of the history of the So
ciety, would not gather from these splendid compo
sitions so much as a particle of information relating
to its author, or to its origin ; — to its date — its early
principles — its permanent laws. Such a reader
would undoubtedly suppose that those enormous
perversions of which the Jesuit writers — Pascal's
contemporaries — are convicted, had all sprung from
their own sophisticated heads, and more sophisti
cated hearts : he would naturally imagine that the
Jesuit Society was at the least a thousand years old,
and that it furnished another instance, among so
many similar instances, of an utter departure from
the spirit and intention of its founders.

It is amazing that, while Pascal is arraigning the
Fathers with whom he had to do, on each princi
pal point of Christian morality, he should have
made no attempt, either to show that the errors he
denounces were the products of Jesuit principles,
or that they were not so, and were chargeable upon
those who then promulgated them. The vicious
doctrines maintained by the "Reverend Fathers"
were either the proper fruits of Loyola's Institute,
or they were flagrant perversions of it. If its
proper fruits, then Pascal should have thought him
self morally obliged to profess that belief, at all
risks ; — but if perversions, then it would have been

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 381

an act at once of generosity and of justice to hold
up this fact to the world, and to set the fame of
a saint clear from the implied opprobrium thrown
upon it by the conduct of his successors and false
followers.

It is not a question with which we have anything
to do, in this instance, whether, in his citation of
the Jesuit writers, he has always been duly attentive
to the sense of the context ; or whether his incul
pations have always been entirely well founded.
It is enough that he himself fully thought them to
be so ; and that the passages he adduces in support
of his allegations were, in his own opinion, valid
and sufficient for the purpose. But if so, how
amazing is that course of things which is necessa
rily involved — on the one hand, in these allegations,
and on the other, in the implicit approval that is
conveyed, by his silence, as to Loyola, and his In
stitute ! The facts thus implied, are these : —

A body of men professedly ministers of religion,
and recognized as such by the Church — men ac
complished, intelligent, and, by general acknowl
edgment, superior, as a class, to their contempora
ries, had— almost suddenly, brought themselves to
adopt, and to employ, and to promulgate, without
shame, a system of casuistry the most flagrantly
immoral. Nothing like it, according to Pascal's
own showing, had the world ever seen or heard of
before; its enormity outstretches even his command
of language to expose it ! Whether warrantable
or not,°such is the tone and drift of page after page
of the Provincial Letters.

But did not it occur to so sagacious a mind— -to

382 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

one so accustomed to trace the connection of cause
and effect — that so strange a departure from the
simplicity of truth — a departure, affecting the mem
bers of a Society which had spread itself over Eu
rope, must have had a SUFFICIENT CAUSE ? Did
Pascal indeed think it credible that a religious com
munity, so numerous, so powerful, so eminent in
its accomplishments and gifts, had, as in a moment,
and without the intervention of a transition period,
sunk down into this slough of corruption ? Was
there no rational account to be given of a declen
sion so instantaneous and universal? Had it no
history ?

Nothing would have seemed more natural — noth
ing more imperatively called for on the part of an
impartial and unshackled controvertist, than, while
dealing with his sinning contemporaries, to have
travelled back a few years — and a very few years
would have sufficee for tracing to its source the
putrescent stream of Jesuit morality ; or else to
have shown that this Ganges of pestilential filth
had no natural rise on earth's surface, but that it
had leaped at once from the nether world !

If indeed the bad theology and worse morality
of the " Reverend Fathers" — Pascal's contempora
ries, were attributable to these degenerate men, with
how much argumentative advantage might he have
confronted them with their wise and saintly prede
cessors, whose bright example they had forgotten,
whose instructions they had rejected, and upon
whose Constitutions and canons they had put con
tempt ! If the case were so, why did not Pascal
cite St. Ignatius — page by page — why did he not

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 383

bring forward chapter after chapter, of the Con
stitutions — why not adduce, entire, the Letter on
Obedience, by means of which he might at once
have convinced the world that his immediate ad
versaries had sinned against their master as griev
ously as he proved them to have sinned against the
Gospel — against the early Fathers, and against the
general sense of the Catholic Church. It is manifest
that, from such a mode of attack, the Jesuits of the
17th century could not have defended themselves.
If there had been ground for the summons, St. Ig
natius might have been called from his seat among
the canonized, to sit in judgment upon, and to con
deinn, his apostate followers.

Nothing like this did the author of the Provincial
Letters attempt. He dared1 not attempt it : he dared
not put to his own conscience so simple a question
as this — Whence had sprung the ethical enormities
which he was denouncing'? He could not permit his
eye to glance, even for a moment, from the foliage
and branches, to the main trunk and roots of the
Jesuit tree.

Or if he did so for a moment, it was not more.
Toward the close of the thirteenth Letter, where
the author convicts his opponents of a corrupt du
plicity in citing the contradictory opinions of their
writers, he says — " C'est done cette variete qui vous
confond davantage. L'uniformite seroit plus sup
portable : et il n'y a rien de plus contraire aux ordres
expres de Saint Ignace et de vos premiers gencraux
que ce melange confus de toutcs sortes d'opinions.
Je vous en parlerai peut-etre quclque jour, nies pores :
et on sera surpris de voir combion vous etos dechus

384 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

du premier esprit de votre institut, et que vos pro-
pres generaux ont prevu que le dereglement de
votre doctrine dans la morale pourroit etre funeste
non seulement a votre Societe, mais encore a
1'Eglise universelle."

It would have been well, if, instead of this vague
and hurried reference to the "explicit injunctions"
of "Saint Ignatius," and of his successors, the author
had told his readers where these injunctions might
be found — in what work, book, and chapter, oc
curred any such cautionary passages, or what might
possibly pass as such. Then it would have been
necessary to show that the import of them — what
ever it might be — was not rendered nugatory by
the equally express and more formal declaration of
principles set forth in the Letter on Obedience, and
in the Constitutions. Pascal in various passages
convincingly shows the vicious tendency of the
Jesuit doctrine of "probability," or of the lawfulness
of any act apparently immoral, in defence of which
some authority, or some shred of reason, can be
adduced. But this doctrine is most explicitly taught
in several places of the Constitutions. In those di
rections, too, for the guidance of consciences which
occur in the Spiritual Exercises, it is affirmed to be
the duty of a Jesuit — at the command of his Su
perior — to declare that what his eyes tell him is
black or white, is the contrary.- The entire drift
of the Letter on Obedience is this, that every
member of the Society is bound to surrender his
individual judgment, understanding, and conscience,
to the will of the Superior, whose word or "nod," is
to be his one and only law. A passage already cited

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 385

(page 325) from the CONSTITUTIONS, seems, on the
face of it, designed to administer a little relief to
scrupulous consciences ; but it ends in a broad affir
mation to this effect, that no act is to be regarded
as immoral which a Superior commands to be per
petrated, if, in doing so, he alleges some particle of
probability in its vindication ; and if such an act, in
the opinion of the Superior, shall tend to promote
" the greater glory of God," and the welfare of " the
Order."

The writer of this thirteenth Letter threatens,
that " some day perhaps" he will bring " Saint Ig
natius" and the earlier Generals into court, for the
purpose of confounding his opponents. It was well
for himself that he made no such attempt. "Per
haps," in some hour of leisure, he actually looked
into the documents whence he had expected to draw
his materials : a glance might suffice to convince
him that, on this ground, nothing could be achieved
that would not afford an occasion of triumph to the
Jesuits, and of deep perplexity and confusion to the
" Church, Catholic-Apostolic, and Roman."

The Provincial Letters are dated in the spring of
the year 1656 : Loyola's Letter on Obedience, in
which the worst sophisms of the system are con-
densedly expressed, is dated April 1, 1553. Little
more, therefore, than a century intervenes between
the two dates ; and it was within this brief period
that those causes were to be looked for — had there
been any such— which had brought about a degen
eracy quite unexampled in the history of religious
communities. Nothing on earth, according to Pas
cal's account, was so prodigious — so appalling, so
17

386 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

shamelessly immoral, as wa& the doctrine and prac
tice of the Jesuits of his time ; and yet such a state
of things had sprung out of a scheme which, by
the silence he observes toward it, he must be held
to have thought good— or at least as not chargeable
with the pernicious sophisms which he assails.

We have said that little more than a century in
tervenes between Pascal's time, and the date of the
Epistle, in which the germ of Jesuitism is to be
found. But in looking more exactly to the facts,
this allowance of time during which a departure
from its principles might have taken place, is found
to be far too ample. Several of the writers, from
whose pages he cites passages of the most repre
hensible kind, are of a date that touches near
upon the very era of the Founder of the Society.
In some instances it can scarcely be said that any
interval separates these writers from their prede
cessors — the actual Fathers of Jesuitism. Saurez,
so much cited by Pascal, abridges this period by
more than half; and others so far shorten it as
to preclude utterly the supposition that any great
change of principle, or any gradual degeneracy,
could have had place within it.*

If, in any instance at all, principles of analogy
may be taken as grounds of probable reasoning — if
at all the known course of human affairs may be
regarded as uniform — if the history of religious
sects, and especially of the monastic bodies, may
seem to sustain a general inference, then must we

* Sanchez published his principal work in 1592, and died 1610.
Molina published in 1568; twelve years, only, after the death of
Loyola.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 387

be compelled to admit that the Jesuit casuistry,
which had continued to excite against the Society
the indignation of the soundest part of the Catholic
Church, throughout the early years of the 17th
century, must have been the product — the proper
and direct consequence, of the principles upon which
the Society had been established in the middle of
the preceding century. Did so obvious a conclu
sion veil itself from Pascal's keen sight? or was
it a task which must have baffled his powers of
analysis and of synthesis to trace and establish the
casual connection between the pages of Molina and
of Bauny, on the one side, and those of Loyola,
Lainez, and Bobadilla, on the other? Nothing
would have been more easy, to a mind like his, than
to follow this short course of reasoning : no one
step in it was a leap. The involutions of the Cy
cloid are far less easy to demonstrate than are the
windings of Jesuit sophistry. Ancient errors relat
ing to a vacuum, or to the tenacity of elastic fluids,
were as inveterate, and were as difficult of disper
sion, as were those false premises on which Loyola
had constructed his scheme. Pascal did not wrant
either the intelligence or the logical habitude which
such a task demanded ; nor did lie want a sincere,
although it was an infirm and misdirected consci
entiousness : — what he did want was that which
the loftiest minds have so often wanted— the free
dom of soul— the moral intrepidity — the thorough
love of truth, and profound fear of God, which
would have carried him irresistibly forward, from
the abominations of the Jesuit casuistry, to the
deep-seated immorality and impiety of the Jesuit,

388 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Institute; and thence onward to those mistaken
doctrines — the mediaeval, and still earlier, church
errors, which had spread a broad and solid founda
tion for a scheme, such as that of the Society. The
fear of God, and the love of truth, must have led a
mind like Pascal's, if unshackled — whither ? — from
out the Church of Rome !

Nothing can be more conspicuously evident than
that the principles and practices of Confession,
Manifestation of the conscience, of Delation, Abso
lute obedience, of Probability, and the like, as
denned and enforced in the canonical writings of
the Society, resulted unavoidably in that debauched
morality which Pascal exposes and condemns. But
then these doctrines, and these practices, necessarily
fatal as they are to virtue and piety, had not only
received authentication from Rome, but, though
diverse, and in some respects novel, they had all
sprung out of Romanism. They were so far ex
aggerations of Romanism, that it would not have
been possible to deal with them in a conclusive
manner without coming very near to the ground
which the Reformers of Germany and Switzerland
had made their own. It would have been a most
perilous, if not desperate endeavor, to excind Jesuit
ism, and to save the Church ; and those who would
have hazarded themselves in any such attempt
must have consented to be bound in the bundle of
perdition with heretics.

Pascal dared not even approach the boundary of
that argumentative area which he filled. He drove
his adversaries from off the spot on which he had
alighted ; — but he did not venture to advance a step

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 389

from that position in pursuit of them. The broad
shadow of " the Church" rested upon all beyond
the narrow circle over which the lash of his indig
nant eloquence held his enemies at J3ay ; — they
retired beyond the reach of it, and they were safe.
He could not follow them, because he must not in
quire concerning the history of their Institute — an
Institute which Christ's vicar had solemnly sanc
tioned. The reader of the Provincial Letters is left
to imagine the Society was as old as any of the
religious communities ; — or as old as the pyramids.
What is it, in a word, that this great man
achieved? Endowed by nature — let us rather say,
gifted from on high, with powers of mind which
very few of the human race have been singled out
to possess — gifted also with moral qualities of the
finest order— taught moreover to yield his mind and
soul to the obedience of faith — thus prepared by
Heaven's own hand — prepared as one only in a
thousand years is prepared — to stand '-for the de
fence and confirmation of the Gospel," what Pascal
actually achieved, when called forth before a listen
ing Europe to encounter the Goliath of immoral
casuistry, was — to leave to posterity an unmatched
literary production — a model of French writing — a
book which Voltaire extols with glee, and which
Atheistic Encyclopedists set themselves to edit with
willing industry !

In behalf of the Christianity of France, nothing
of permanent consequence was effected by the Pro
vincial Letters. The Reverend Fathers speedily
washed themselves clean — or clean to their own
taste, in their own ditch — repaired their torn coats,

390 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and applied their own salve to their lacerated
shoulders. The Society stood erect on its feet, and,
without a blush, confronted the scorn of the world.
Nay, it triumphed ; it prevailed against its assail
ants, it drove them from the field, it held that
field open for the advance of its successors — the
men of the Encyclopedia, and of the Revolution.

Pascal and his illustrious friends of Port Royal
forfeited their apostleship as the restorers of a gen
uine Christianity in France. They had received
liberally all the gifts requisite for the purpose— all
but the highest — a courage more rare than that of
the martyr. Readily would several of these great
men have trod a path such as that which Latimer
and Ridley and Hooper trod ; but they dared not
walk on with God and conscience to — they knew
not what consequence — perhaps till they found
themselves abreast with Luther, Calvin, and Me-
lancthon !

France, after the horrors of the Huguenot per
secution, collapsed ; for the Port Royal men had
failed to do that for their country which might have
given it a new, a vital impulse ; and its actual con
dition at the present moment — its want of deep
and powerful religious convictions — its want of
Christianity, may be traced up, through no very
circuitous chain of effects and causes, to that fatal
time when the only body of men which, in modern
times, France has possessed, influenced by a pro
found and genuine belief in the Gospel — held that
belief subordinate to their pledged submission to
Church authority.

— " Graces a Dieu, je n'ai d'attache sur la terre

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 391

ou'a la seule Eglise Catholique, Apostolique et
Romaine, dans laquelle je veux vivre et mourir, et
dans la communion avec le pape son souverain
chef, hors de laquelle je suis tres persuade qu'il
n'y a point de salut." — Ytth Letter.

Thoroughly sincere, no doubt was this profession.
But a sincere belief, is not all that will be required
of those whose endowments and acquirements
qualify them to ascertain the rational foundation
of their belief, and whose position before the world,
as teachers and writers, requires them to acquaint
themselves with those facts, and with those argu
ments, of which they will hear nothing within the
circle of their own communion.

In France, and at the time of the struggle be
tween the men of Port Royal and the Jesuits,
Christianity was shut up within precincts so nar
row as that, when this one fortress had been car
ried and demolished — all was lost. Among our
selves, and in this age, no catastrophe of a precisely
similar kind can be thought of as probable. The
Gospel, powerfully entrenched as it is, in this Chris
tian land, and widely diffused and deep-seated in
the bosoms of men moving and acting under inde
pendent influences, seems to stand exempt from any
perils to which it might become liable through the
plots or endeavors of any single adversary, or even
of several combined. It has little to fear from
conclaves, or from conspiracies hatched in secret
chambers : let Jesuits, or others like them, do their
worst.

The struggle of our English Christianity will
not be with bodies of men, whether Romish or In-

392 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

fidel ; but with that ominous tendency of the hu
man mind, too clearly indicated, as it is at this
moment, from end to end of Europe, which while it
relieves us from anxiety regarding the mischievous
agency of individuals or of parties, inspires a deep
awe, if not alarm, as it announces the final conflict
of First Principles, touching religious Belief.

NOTES

Note to page 21.

No purpose which the writer of this volume has had in view
would have been subserved by his attempting the precarious task
of ascertaining disputed dates, connected with Loyola's personal
history, or of shedding, perhaps, some ray of light upon single and
unimportant incidents in that history. The history of the Founder
of Jesuitism is accepted as authentic in the main, at the hands of his
friends and contemporaries : — little heed being given, on the one
hand, to the foolish exaggerations with which they have encum
bered it: or on the other, to the invectives and vehement inculpa
tions of those whose antagonist zeal has been unchecked by can
dor or Christian charity.

The "Biographers" referred to in this volume are those collected
in the ACTA SANCTORUM of the Bollandists (as well as separately
published) and whose pages have supplied ORLANDINUS, the au
thorized historian of the Order, with his materials. Of these wri
ters, the one whose Life of St. Ignatius would be singled out as the
most agreeable and comprehensive by readers whose curiosity might
not carry them on through folios, is the Jesuit —

JOHN PETER MAFFEI. His life of St. Ignatius Loyola is not
of great length; it is composed in a good Latin style, is as free
from what might be offensive as ought to be expected: and it ap
parently deserves to be considered as authentic. It has been sep
arately printed, but is usually met with appended to this writer's
History of the Indies. It first appeared in 1585. He seems to
have drawn his materials from the notes of Polancus, a contem
porary and companion of the General. From the same source,
probably, Orlandinus derived what he has. with unrestrained ampli
tude, woven into his history of the Founder of the Order.

One who was a daily companion of the General — a Spaniard
named Ludovico Gonsalvo — availing himself of the opportunities
which his position afforded him, received from the lips of his spirit-

394 NOTES.

ual Father such particulars of his personal history as the humility
of a saint might permit him to convey. These narrations he had
strung together in a manner and in a style which inspires confi
dence ; and so far as the Memoirs of Gonsalvo extend — which is
only to the commencement of Loyola's public course — this writer is
probably the safest of those guides among whom a choice must be
made.

The Jesuit Pietro Ribadeneira, availing himself— as a sort of text
— of Gonsalvo's materials, expands them into a history of volumi
nous bulk, and in the course of which he frequently deviates from
the path of other Jesuit writers— particularly from that of Maffei.
As to what is supernatural in Loyola's history, Rabadeneira is as
abstinent and cautious as he well could be, and therefore he has, so
much the more, a claim to confidence. Nevertheless he and his
colleagues write always with the intention and feeling of the ap
pointed advocates of their Order.

The Life of Loyola, by ORLANDINUS, constituting the first portion
of that writer's history of the Society, is a very elaborate work, ex
tending through the double columns of 42G closely-printed folio pa
ges ; and it may well be held to comprise all materials which a
writer so industrious, and so well informed, could derive from the
copious stores placed for this purpose at his command.

Note to page 28.

Whether Ignatius was the youngest of this numerous family, or
the youngest of the sons, has been a point debated among the bi
ographers. Once for all, the author will say, and in relation to
very many instances of a similar kind, that he would think his own
time and that of his reader thrown away in the endeavor — even if
successful— to weigh evidences and ascertain the truth, in such in
stances. No consequence, having an important bearing upon any
great question, can possibly attach to details of this sort; or even
to some points in the personal history of Loyola which might seem
of more weight and magnitude. A volume might soon be filled
with the mere statement of discrepancies among the biographers,
and with formally-pronounced judgments thereupon.

NOTES TO CHAPTER I. PART II.

Whether an attempt to ascertain Loyola's share in the literary
documents of the Society could now be made with any chance of

NOTES. 395

a successful result, I do not know. The inquiry could, however,
entail no consequences beyond such as may attach to any ordinary
question of literary antiquarianism. It might affect, in some de
gree, the opinion we form of his personal character, and of the com
pass of his mind. As to the Jesuit system, it is enough that we have
in our hands its code and formularies, such as they have been, and
have continued to be, since the time of the last recension of them
under the hand of Loyola himself.

As to the Spiritual Exercises, there is great reason to believe that
— perhaps with some suggestions from his friends, they are Loyola's
own : the body of them is probably attributable to a very early pe
riod in his religious course ; the latter portions having been added
from time to time, and embracing therefore the results of his large
experience in the care of souls.

Some readers may wish to have before them a few samples, at
least, of the book itself, and which may not happen to have fallen
into their hands. The recent English translation to which reference
is made in the text, is entitled — " The Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius Loyola, translated from the authorized Latin : with ex
tracts from the literal version and notes of the Rev. Father Rothaan,
Father General of the Company of Jesus ; by Charles Seager, M.A.,
to which is prefixed A PREFACE by the Right Rev. Nicholas Wise
man, D.D., Bishop of Melipotamus, and Coadjutor of the Midland
District of England. London, 1847." The learned writer of this
" Preface" prepares the uninstructed reader for the disappointment
which is likely to attend a mere perusal of the " Exercises." He
says — " In the Exercises of St. Ignatius many will no doubt be dis
appointed, when for the first time they look into them. They have
heard of the wonderful effects which they have produced, of the
innumerable conversions which they have wrought, of the spiritual
perfection to which they have led ; and they will see in the text of
the work itself nothing but simplicity of form, plainness of sentiment
and diction, hints often rather than explanations, germs of thought
rather than developments, skeletons more often than perfect forms,
sketches instead of pictures; — no poetry, no emotions, no high-
flown ideas, no enthusiastic aspirations ; but maxims of eternal im
port inculcated with the calmness of a philosopher; the sternest
truths delivered as obvious and self-demonstrating propositions; the ,
sublimest moral lessons of the Gospel, self-denial, renunciation of
the world, contempt of life, perpetual continency, and blind obe-,
dience, taught as simple virtues attainable to any Christian. And
yet throughout there is a manifest conviction of the adequacy of thd

396 NOTES.

means to the end, in the writer's mind ; there is nothing experimen
tal, nothing optional, nothing left to be discovered; but every
method is laid down as certain, every result reckoned on as sure."
— Preface.

The original Latin of a portion at least of the passages cited or
referred to in the text shall now be laid before the reader, for his
further satisfaction as to the true meaning of the Jesuit documents.

Passages cited on — page 227.

Sicut enim deambulare, iter facere, et currere, exercitia sunt cor-
poralia; ita quoque praeparare et disponere animam ad tollendas
affectiones omnes male ordinatas, et iis sublatis, ad quaerendam et
inveniendam voluntatem Dei, circa vitae suae institutionem et salu-
tem animse, exercitia vocantur spiritualia. — Exer. Spirit. Annotat.

Page 231.

Creatus est homo ad hunc finem, ut Dominum Deum suum lau-
det, ac revereatur eique serviens tandem salvus fiat. Reliqua vero
supra terram sita creata sunt hominis ipsius causa, ut eum ad finera
creationis suae prosequendum juvent : unde sequitur, utendum illis
vel abstinendutn eatenus esse, quatenus ad prosecutionem finis vel
conferunt vel obsunt. Q,uapropter debemus absque differentia nos
habere circa res creatas omnes (prout libertati arbitrii nostri sub-
jectas sunt et non prohibitse) : ita ut (quod in nobis est) non quaera-
mus sanitatem magis quam aegritudinem, neque divitias paupertati,
honorem contemptui, vitam longam brevi praeferamus. Sed con-
sentaneum est. ex omnibus ea demum quae, ad finem ducunt, eli-
gere ac desiderare. — Exer. Spirit. Princip.

Page 233.

Prima est, ut quoties id peccati seu delicti genus homo commise-
rit, manu pectori admota, doleat de lapsu : quod fieri potest etiam
assistentibus aliis, nee advertentibus.

Secunda est, ut sub noctem, numeratis comparatisque invicem
punctis linearum, quarum prior priori examini, posterior posteriori
assignata, attendat, an a priore Examine usque ad secundum ali-
qua successerit emendatio.

Tertia est, ut conferart diei secundse atque prsecedentis Examina
invicem: considerans ecquid sibi emend ationis intervenerit.

Quarta ut, collatis Hebdomadarum duarum inter se Examinibus,
pari modo factee vel omissse emendationis rationem habeat.

NOTES.

397

Item notandum est ex sequentibus figuris, primam ceteris lon-
giorem deputari diei primse, puta Dominicse : secundam vero diei
Lunge, paulo brtfviorem : et ita deinceps : cum par sit, diminui in
dies erratorum numerum. — Exer. Spirit. Eaam. Partic

Page 236.

Primum prseludium est ratio qusedam componendi loci. Pro qua
notandum est, quod in quavis meditatione sive contemplatione de
re corporea, ut puta de Christo, effingendus erit nobis, secundum
visionem quamdam imaginariam, locus corporeus, id quod contem-
plamur representans : veluti templum aut mons, in quo reperiamus
Christum JESUM, vel MAUIAM Virginem. et csetera quae spectant ad
contemplationis nostrse argumentum.

Sin autern speculationi subest res incorporea, ut est consideratio
peccatorum nunc oblata ; poterit loci constructio talis esse, ut si per
imaginationem cernamus animam nostram in corpore isto corrupti-
bili velut in carcere constrictam, hominem quoque ipsum in hac
miserise valle inter animalia bruta exulantem.— Exer. Spirit. I.
Hebd.

Page 237.

" This composition of the place (making up the scene) is of great
utility in fixing the attention, which is thus prevented from wan
dering, or if it wanders, is easily recalled."

Nevertheless it should in candor be stated that the authors of the
Directory append a caution at this place to the following effect :—
" To avoid dwelling too much on this fabrication of the place, as it
is not itself the end of meditation, but only the Christian means for
attaining that end. For there is no doubt," they say, " that this
(faculty) comes more naturally to those who have a lively imagina
tion. Others who find more difficulty therein, should not expend
upon it so much labor as to break down their faculties, and thereby
impede the meditation."

" The fifth Exercise, which is the application of the senses, is
very easy and useful, enabling us Christians by the imagination to
see persons, hear words and noises, and to touch or kiss either
places or persons, which should be done with all due reverence and
fear. St. Ignatius applies the sense of smell to perceiving the fra
grance of the mind from the gifts of God, and that of taste to tast
ing his sweetness, both which actions imply the presence of the
subject of our meditations.

398 NOTES.

" But what we mean here is that, having meditated on the incar
nation and nativity, we should separately apply the senses to it, and
in like manner with the other scenes in the life of Christ. This does
not mean that the application of the senses is to be separated from
the matter of the meditation, but that the application of the senses
is the chief end of meditation on the mysteries.

"This differs from meditation, inasmuch as the latter is more ele
vated and intellectual, and flies off to consider higher subjects :
.... which the former does not do, but insists more upon the visi
ble adjuncts.

" There is a double utility in this, for when the mind is incapaci
tated from the consideration of loftier subjects it is raised thereto by
dwelling upon the lower. Sometimes also the mind, satiated by
higher mysteries, descends and finds rest and consolation in the
application of the senses to such mysteries." — Direct, cap. xx.

Page 238.

Colloquium primum fit ad Dominam nostram Christi Matrem,
flagitando intercessionem ejus apud Filium, et gratise impetrationem
nobis tripliciter necessarise. Primo, ut internam criminum nostro-
rum cognitionem ac detestationem sentiamus : secundo, ut, operum
nostrorum agnoscentes abhorrentesque ordinem perversum, correcto
eo, nosmetipsos secundurn Deum recte ordinemus : tertio, ut, per-
specta et damnata mundi pravitate, a rebus mundanis ac vanis nos
recipiamus. His expletis, semel recitetur Ate Maria.— Exer. Spirit.
I. Hebd.

Pages 238—239.

Posterius vero consistit in poscenda intima poenarum, quas dam-
nati luunt, apprehensione : ut, si quando me ceperit divini amoris
oblivio, saltern a peccatis supplicii timor coerceat.

Punctual primum est spectare per imaginationem vasta inferorum
incendia, et animas, igneis quibusdam corporibus, velut ergastuiis,
inclusas.

Secundum audire imaginarie planctus, ejulatus, vociferationey,
atque blasphemias in Christum et Sanctos ejus, illinc erumpentes.

Tertium, imaginario etiam olfactu fumum, sulfur, et sentinae
cujusdam seu faecis atque putredinis a graveolentiam persentire.

Quartum, gustare similiter res amarissimas, ut lacrymas, ranco-
rem, conscientiseque vermem.

duinturn, tangere quodammodo ignes illos, quorum tactu anima
ipsae amburuntur.

NOTES. 399

Colloquendo interim cum Chnsto in memoriam adducendse erunt
illorum animae

Septima est ut eamdem ob causam omni me privem lucis claritate,
januis ac fenestris clausis tantisper dum illic moror, nisi quamdiu
legendum aut vescendum erit. — Exer. Spirit. I. Hebd.

Page 240.

Q,uarta est, utipsam aggrediar Contemplationem, nunc prostratus
humi et pronus aut supinus jacens, nunc scdens autstans, eteo me
componens mode quo spcrem facilius id consequi quod opto. Ubi
adverti haec duo debent : Primum. quod si flexis genibus, vel in alio
quovis situ, voti compos fiam, nil requiram ultra. Secundum, quod
in puncto, in quo assecutus fuero quaesitam devotionem, conquies-
cere debeo, sine transcurrendi anxietate. donee mihi satisfecero. —
Exer. Spirit. I. Hebd.

Page 240.

Tertio, circa ipsam carnem, ut inflictum sentiat dolorem admotis
gestatisque ciliciis, funibus, aut vectibus ferreis, vel incussis ver-
beribus ac plagis, vel aliis austeritatis generibus assumptis. In
quibus tamen omnibus magis expedire videtur, ut doloris sensus in
came tantum sit, nee penetret ossa cum infirmitatis periculo. Q,uare
flagellis potissimum utemur ex funiculis minutis, quae exteriores
affligunt partcs, non autem adeo intcriores ut valetudinem adver-
sam causare possint. — Exer. Spirit. I. Hebd.

Page 242.

Praeludium primum ex historia dependet, qua; recensenda est ab
egressu beatae Virginis ex oppido Nazareth : quo scilicet modo. jam
nono mense gravida. et insidens asinse (ut pie meditari licet), ac
Joseph comes, cum ancillula, et bove profecti sunt Bethlehem, tri-
butum a Csesare exactum pro se soluturi.

Secundum vero deducendurn erit ex consideratione itineris, sesti-
mata ejus longitudine, obliquitate, lenitate, vel asperitate passim
occurrente. Deinceps etiam nativitatis locum rimabimur, speluncao
similem, latum vel angustum, planum vel erectum, commode vel
incommode paratum.— Exer. Spirit. II. Hebd.

Page 245.

Post orationem praeparatoriam cum tribus jam dictis Praeludiis,
apprimae conducet, quinque imaginarios sensus circa primam et se-

400 NOTES.

cundam Contemplationem eo qui sequitur modo exercere, prout res
subjecta feret.

Punctura primum erit, secundum imaginationem respicere per-
sonas omnes : et notatis quae circa eas occurrent, circumstantiis
utilitatem nostram elicere.

Secundum, velut audiendo quid loquantur, aut loqui eas deceat,
omnia in usutn nostrum attrahere.

Tertium, interiore quodam gustu et olfactu sentire, quanta sit
suavitas et dulcedo animse, divinis donis ac virtutibus imbutse, juxta
rationem personae quam consideramus ; adaptando nobis ea, quae
fructum aliquem afferre possint.

Quartum, per internum tactum attrectare, ac -deosculari vesti-
menta, loca, vestigia, ceteraque perscmis talibus conjuncta : unde
fiat nobis devotionis, vel boni cujuslibet spiritualis major accessio.
—Exer. Spirit. II. Hebd.

Pages 247, 248.

Prseludium primum erit historica quaedam consideratio Christi ex
una parte, et ex altera Luciferi: quorum uterque omnes homines
ad se vocat, sub vexillo suo congregandos.

Secundum est ad constructionem loci, ut representetur noois
campus amplissimus circa Hierosolymam, in quo Dominus JESUS
Christus tamquam bonorum hominum omnium summus Dux assis-
tat. Rursum alter campus in Babylonia, ubi se Lucifer malorum
et adversariorum Ducem exhibeat.

Tertium ad gratiam petendam illud erit, ut poscamus exploratas
habere fraudes mali Ducis, invocata simul divina ope ad eas vitan-
das : veri autem optimique Imperatoris Christi agnoscere mores in
genues, ac per gratiam imitari posse.

Punctum primum est, imaginari coram oculis meis, apud campum
Babylonicum Ducem impiorum in cathedra ignea et fumosa sedere,
horribilem figura, vultuque terribilem.

Secundum est, advertere quomodo convocatos daemones innu-
meros per totum orbem spargit ad nocendum, nullis civitatibus et
locis, nullis personarutn generibus immunibus relictis.

Tertium, attendere cujusmodi concionem habeat ad ministros
suos, quos instigat, ut, correptis injectisque lacqueis et catenis,
homines primum trahant (quod fere contingit) ad cupidatem divi-
tiarum : unde postea facilius in mundani honoris ambitionem, ac
demum in superbiae barathrum deturbari queant.

Atque ita tres sunt prsecipui tentationum gradus, in divitiis, ho-

NOTES. 401

noribus, et superbia fundati : ex quibus in alia vitiorum genera
omnia prseccps fit decursus.

Skniliter, ex opposite, considerandus est summus optimusque
noster Dux et Imperator Christus.

Punctum primum erit, conspicari Christum, in amoeno campo
juxta Hierosolymam, huuiili quidem constitutum loco, sed valdc
speciosum forma et aspectu summe amabilem.

Secundum autem est, speculari quo pacto ipse mundi Dominus
universi electos Apostolos. Discipulos, et ministros alios per orbem
mittat, qui omni hominum generi, statui, et condition! doctrinam
sacram ac salutiferam impartiant.

Tertium, auscultare concionem Christi exhortatoriam, ad servos
et amicos suos omnes in opus tale destinatos, qua eis praecipit, ut
juvare studiant quemlibet, ac primo inducendum curent ad spirit-
ualem afTectum paupertatis : et insuper (si divini obsequii ratio et
electio caelestis eo ferat) ad sectandam actu ipso veram pauperta-
teni ; deinde ut ad opprobrii contemptusque desiderium alliciant,
unde hurailitatis virtus enascitur.

Et ita tres consurgunt perfectionis gradus, videlicet paupertas,
abjectio sui, atque humilitas, quce ex diametro divitiis, honori, et
superbise opponuntur, ac virtutes omnes statim introducunt.

Colloquium postea fonnandum erit ad Virginem beatam, implo-
randaque est per earn a Filio gratia, ut recipi possim et manere sub
Vexillo ejus : idque primum per spiritualcm tantum paupertatem,
aut etiam in rerum expoliatione sitam (siquidem ad earn me vocare
atque admittere dignabitur) ; deinde per abjectionem quoque seu
ignominiam, ut ipsum imiter vicinius : deprecando tamen culpam
aliorum, ne contemptus mei tarn in alicujus detrimentum quam in
offensam Dei cedat. Term in abitur primum hoc Colloquium perdue
Maria— Exer. Spirit. II. Hebd.

Page 249.

Tertius est Modus humilitatis absolutissimae ut. priores duos jam
adeptus, etiam si, nullo superaddito, laus Dei par foret; ad majo-
rem tamen imitationem Christi eligam potius (cum eo paupere,
spreto, et illuso) paupcriem, contemptum, et insipientise titulurn
amplecti, quam opes, honores, et sapientia nestirnationem.

Porro, ad gradum hunc humilitatis attingendum. magnum afieret
compendium, triplicis Colloquii praecedentis de Vexillis usus, per
quod suppliciter poscarnus (si divinsc placeat Benignitati) ad talem
perduci Electionem, sive major sive sequalis obsequii mei erga Deurn
ct gloriaj divinae proventus subsit. — Exer. Spirit. II. Hebd.

402 NOTES.

Page 251.

Secundum, ex compositione loci, considerando dictum iter, aspe-
rum aut lene, breve aut longum, cum ceteris quae inesse poterant
circumstantiis : deinceps conspicando locum Cenae, amplum vel
augustum, vilem vel ornatum, et consimilia. — Exer. Spirit. III.
Hebd.

Page 252.

Quinta, quod expedit inter comedendum imaginari, quasi vide-
amus JESUM Christum Dominum nostrum vescentem cum suis Dis-
cipulis, observando quern teneat edendi, bibendi, respiciendi, et lo-
quendi modum, eumque ad imitandum nobis proponendo. Usuve-
niet enim, ut, occupato magis intellectu circa meditationem talem
quam circa corporalem cibum, discamus facilius victam moderari.
—Exer. Spirit. III. Hebd.

Page 252.

Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem. Accipe memoriam,
intellectum, atque voluntatem omnem. Quidquid habeo, vel possi-
deo, mihi largitus es : id tibi totum restituo, ac tuae prorsus voluntati
trado gubernandum. Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi dones.
et dives sum satis, nee aliud quidquam ultra posco. — Exer. Spirit.
IV. Hebd.

Page 253.

Tertius hie orandi Modus in eo consistit, ut inter singulas respe-
randi vices, singula Doininicse alteriusve Orationis verba tranmit-
tamus, expensa interim vel significatione prolatse vocis, vel personae
ad quam oratio special dignilale, vel mea ipsius vililale, vel ulrius-
que poslremo differentia. Eodem procedendum modo in verbis re-
liquis. Addenda} quoque oraliones supra memoratse, A ve, Credo,
etc. REQUIRE Du^: HUG SPECTANTES.

Prior, ut, finita juxta hunc orandi Modum Precatione Dominica,
sumalur aliis diebus vel horis Angelica Salulalio, simili respira-
tionum inlervallo tractanda: cum aliis orationibus usitato more
recitandis.

Posterior, ut qui hunc orandi Modum exercere cupit diutius, ut
eum applicet precaliones omnes supradiclas aul earum partes, et
paria anhelituum ac vocum interstitia observel. — Spirit. Exer.
Modi Tres Orandi.

NOTES. 403

Pages 257— 2GO.

REGULJE ALIQ.UOT.

Prima, sublato proprio omni judicio, tenendus est semper paratus
promptusque animus ad obediend urn verse Christ! Sponsseac sanctse
Matri nostrae, qusa est orthodoxa, catholica, et hierarchica Ecclesia.

Secunda, laudare convenit solitam fieri Sacerdoti Confessionem
peccatorum, et Eucharistise sacrac sumptionem annuam ut mini
mum : cum sit laudabilius, octavo quoque die, aut semel saltern in
mense quolibet, servatis interim conditionibus debitis, Sacramentum
ipsuin suscipere.

Tertia, commendare Christi fidelibus, ut frequenter ac devote
Missse Sacrum seu Sacrificiura audiant. Item cantus ecclesiasti-
cos, psalmos. et prolixas preccs, in templis vel extra templa reci-
tandas: tempora etiam probare, determinata officiis Divinis et pre-
cationibus quibuscumque, ut sunt quas vocamus Horas canonicas.

Q,uarta, laudare pluriiaum Religionum Status, atque cffilibatum
seu virginilatem matrimonio praeferre.

Quinta, comprobare vota Religiosorum de servanda castitate,
paupertate, obedientiaque perpctua, cum aliis perfectionis et super-
erogationis operibus. Ubi obiter notandum est, quod cum voti
ratio ad ea pertincat quae ad perfectionem ducunt vitae christianae,
de aliis qute ab ipsa perfectione potius avertunt. ut de riegotiatione
vel matrimonio. votum numquam emittendum sit.

Sexta, laudare praeterea Reliquias, venerationem et invocationem
Sanctorum: item stationes peregrinutionesque pias, indulgentias,
jubileea. candelas in templis accendi solitas, et reliqua hujusmodi
pietatis ac dcvotionis nostrse adminicula.

Septima, extollere abstinentioo ac jejuniorum usum. ut quadra-
gesimse quatuor temporum, vigiliarum sext* feri:e, sabbati, alio-
rumque pro devotione susceptorum : item spontaneas afflictiones
sui, quas poenitentias dicimus, non internas solum, sed ctiam ex-
ternas.

Octeiva, laudare insuper templorum exstructiones atque orna-
menta: ncc non imagines, tamquam propter id quod reprasentant,
jure optimo venerandas.

Nona, confirmare maxime omnia Ecclesise prascepta, nee impug-
nare ullo modo : sed contra impugnantcs, quaesitis undique rationi-
bus, prompte defendcre.

Dechr.a, Patrum etiam seu Superiorum decreta, mandata, tra-
ditiones, ritus, et mores studiose probare. Licet autem non reperi*

404 NOTES.

atur ubique ea quse deberet esse morum integritas, si quis tarn en
vel in publica condone vel in populari commercio ipsis obloquitur,
general potius damna et scandala, quam aliquid afiferat remedii
aut utilitatis : cum nihil aliud sequatur, nisi exasperatio et obstrec-
tatio populi adversus Principes ac Pastores suos. Temperandum
est igitur ab isto invectivarum genere. Verumtamen, sicut damno-
sum est, Primates ipsos absentes apud populum allatrare atque
proscindere ; ita rursus privatim admonere eos qui, si velint, mederi

huic malo possunt, opera pretium videtur fore

Decima tertia, denique, ut ipsi Ecclesise Catholicse omnino una-
nimes conformesque simus. si quid, quod oculis nostris apparet al
bum, nigrum ilia esse definierit, debemus itidem, quod nigrum sit,
pronuntiare. Indubitate namque credendum est, eumdem esse
Domini nostri JESU Christi et Ecclesiae orthodoxse Sponsae ejus
spiritum, per quern gubernamur ac dirigimur ad salutem; neque
alium esse Deum, qui olim tradidit Decalogi praocepta, et qui nunc
temporis Ecclesiam hierachicam instruit atque regit. — Exerr. Spirit.
Reg. Aliquot.

NOTES TO CHAPTER II.

Pages 273—300.

PASSAGES to which a reference is made, or which are cited or
abridged from the Epistola B. P. Nostri Ignatii de Virtute Obe-
dientise.

IGNATIUS LOYOLA,

Fratribus Societatis Jesu, qui sunt in Lusitania, Gratiarn, et
Amorem Christi Domini Sempiternum.

Ab aliis religiosis ordinibus facilius patiamur superari nos jejuniis,
vigiliis, et csetera victus cultuque asperitate, quam suo quisque ritu,
ac disciplina sancte suscipiunt ; vera quidem ac perfecta Obedi-
entia, abdicationeque voluntatis atque judicii, maxime velim. Fra-
tres Carissimi, esse conspicuos quicumque in hac Societate DEO
Domino nostro deserviunt ; ejusdemque Societatis veram germa-
namque sobolem hac quasi nota distingui, qui nunquam intueantur
personam ipsam cui obediunt, sed in ea Christum Dominum, cujus
causa obediunt. Si quidem Superiori, nee si prudentia, bonitate,
cseterisve quibuslibet Divinis donis ornatus, instructusque sit, prop-

NOTES. 405

terea obtemperandum est ; sed ob id solum, quod vices gerat DEI
ejusdemque auctoritate fungatur, qui dicit. " Q,ui vos audit, me
audit ; et qui vos spernit, me spernit :" nee contra, sive consilio aut
prudentia minus valeat, quidquam idcirco de Obedientia remitten-
dum, quatenus ille Superior est; quando illius personam refert,
cujus sapientia falli non potest: supplebitque ipse. quid quidminis-
tro defuerit. sive probitate, aliisque ornamentis careat. Siquidem
disertis verbis Christus Dominus cum dixisset: "super Cathedram
Moysi sederunt Scribae, et Pharisoei;" protinus addidit, " omnia
ergo qusecumque dixerint vobis, servate et facite ; secundurn vero
opera eorum nolite facerc."

Jam vero illud etiam vobis clare compertum esse, ac in animis
vestris penitus insidere vehementer cupio, infimam et valde irnper-
fectam esse illam Obedientise formam quae mandata duntaxat opere
exsequitur; nee virtutis nomine dignam, nisi ad alterum gradum
ascendat, qui voluntatem Superioris suam eflicit, et cum ea ita
concordct, ut non solum in effectu executio appareat. verum etiam
in affectu consentio; sicque idem velit uterque, idem nolit. Atque
propterea in Sacris Litteris legimus, '•' Melior est Obedientia, quam
victimse;" si quidem (ut S. Gregorius docet) " per victimas aliena
caro. per Obedientiam vero voluntas propria mactatur ;" quse qui
dem pars animi, quoniam est adeo prastans, sic fit, ut ejus oblatio
Dornino ac Creatori nostro per Obedientiam facta magni sit a;sti-
manda

duocirca voluntates vestras, Pratres Carissimi, quoad ejus fieri
omnino deponite : libertatem Conditori vestro quam vobis ipsemet
elajgitus est, in ejus ministris libere tradite, ac dicate. Nolite exi-
guum vestri liberi arbitrii fructum putare quod liceat vobis illud, u
quo id accepistis, eidem per Obedientiam plene reddere. Quod cum
facitis, non modo non perditis ipsum, verum ipsum augetis atque
perficitis ; quippe qui vestras omnes voluntates certissima rectitudi-
nis rcgula moderamini voluntate Divina, quam videlicet interpre-
tatur is, qui vobis DKI nomine prcesidct.

Itaque diligenter illud etiam cavendum est. nc Superioris ullo
unquam tempore voluntatem (quam ducere pro Divina debetis) ad
vestram detorquere nitamini : id enim esset non vestram Divinse
conformare, sed Divinam vestraj voluntatis norm a regere velle,
ejusdem Divinre Sapientia} ordinem invertentes. Sane quam mag-
nus est error, ct quidem eorum quos amor sui obcajcavit. obedientes
existimare sese, cum Superiorem ad id quod ipsimet volunt aliqua
ratione pertraxerint

Q,ui vero se totum penitus immolare vult DEO prseter voluntatem,

406

NOTES.

intelligentiam quoque (qui tertius et summus est gradus Obedien-
tise) offerat necesse est, ut non solum idem velit, sed ctiam ut idem
sentiat quod Superior, ejusque judicio subjiciat suum, quoad potest
devota voluntas intelligentiam inflectere. Q,use vis animi tametsi
non ea qua voluntas pollet, libertate praedita est ; atque ipsa natura
fertur ejus assensus in id, quod sibi veri speciem praebet : tamen
multis in rebus, in quibus videlicet cognitae veritatis evidentia vim
ill: non infert, potest voluntatis pondere in hanc potius, quam in
illam partem inclinari. Q,uae res cum incidunt, debet quisquis Obe-
dientiam profitetur, inclinare sese in sententiam Superioris. Etenim
cum Obedientia sit quoddam holocaustum, quo totus homo sine ulla
prorsus immunitione Conditori suo, ac Domino per manus ministro-
rum in caritatis igne immolatur; cumque sit eadem renunciatio
quasdam integra, per quam omni suo jure sponte decedit religiosus,
ut Divrnae Providentiae Superioris ductu gubernandum, ac possiden-
dum ultro sese addicat, ac mancipet : negari non potest, quin Obe
dientia comprehendat, non solum executionem, ut imperatur quis
facial, et voluntatem, ut libenter faciat; sed etiam judicium, ut
qusecumque Superior mandat ac sentit, eadem inferiori et recta, et
vera esse videantur, quatenus, ut dixi, vi sua potest voluntas intel
ligentiam flectere

Nam ut in corporibus globisque coelestibus, alius alium afficiat
moveatque, requiritur, ut certa quadam convenientia et ordine in
ferior orbis superiori subjiciatur : sic in hominibus, cum alter alte-
rius auctoritate movetur, quod per Obedientiam fit, oportet ut is,
qui ab alterius nutu pendet, subserviat, et obsecundet ; ut virtus ab
imperante ad eum derivetur, et influat. Hac autem obtemperandi
obsecundandique ratio constare non potest. nisi voluntas ac judi
cium inferioris cum Superioris voluntate ac judicio congruat

Praeterea, nisi hsec Obedientia judicii existat. fieri non potest. ut
vel consensus voluntatis. vel executio talis sit, qualem esse oportet :
natura eniin ita comparatum est. ut animi nostri vires, quae appc-
titivae dicuntur, sequantur apprehensivas; et nisi adhibita vi; volun
tas, judicio repugnante, diu obtemperare non poterit. Quod si forte
quis aliquo temporis spatio obediat per communem illam apprehen-
sionem, qua censetur, perperam etiam prsecipienti parendum cssc ;
certe id stabile, ac fixum esse non potest : atqua ita perscverant.ia
deficit, vel saltern Obedientise periectio. qua) in proaipte et alacriter
obediendo consistit ; non enim ibi potest. esse alacritas, sententia-
rumque dissensio. Perit etiam exsequendi stadium, et celeritas,
cum ambitur, expediat nee ne, facere quod jubemur : perit Celebris
ilia Obedientiss csecse simplicitas. cuoa apud nos ipsos in qusestionem

NOTES. 407

vocamus, recte ne prsecipiatur, an secus : atque etiam fortasse dam-
nainus Superiorem, quod ea mandet, quse nobis non ita jucunda
sunt : peril humilitas, quoniam etsi ex altera parte paremus, ex al-
tera tamen nosmetipsos Superior! prseferimus : perit in rebus arduis
fortitude; perit denique (ut summatim complectar) virtutis hujus
vis omnis ac dignitas. Succedunt autem in eorum locum dolor,
molestia, tarditas, lassitude, obmurmurationes, excusationes, aliaque
vitia non sane levia, quibus Obedientiae pretium, ac merit um pror-
sus extinguitur

Q,uam vero sit eadem ipsa pcrfccta, grataque Domino, inde pri-
murn ostenditur, quod per earn prsestantissima pars hominis ac pre-
tiosissima Domino consecratur. Deinde quod Obediens ita fit holo-
caustum vivum, gratumque Majestati Divinse, cum nihil suimet
omnino retineat : postremo quod magna est hujus certaminis diffi-
cultas ; frangit enim sese Dei causa Obediens ipseinet, resistitque
naturali propensioni, qute omnibus hominibus incita est ad suam
complectcndam sequendamque sententiam. Ex his igitur rebus
efficitur. ut Obedientia, tametsi proprie voluntatem perficere videa-
tur. quippe quam reddit ad nutum Superioris proruptam ac paratam ;
nihilominus ad intelligcntiam quoque ipsam, ut diximus, pertinere
debeat, eamque inducere ad sentiendum id ipsum, quod sentit Su
perior : sic enim fiet, ut omnibus connixi viribus et voluntatis, et
intelligentite. ad executionem celerem atque integram veniamus.

Primum illud est, ut quemadmodum initio dixi, non intueamini in
persona Superioris hominem obnoxium erroribus, atque miseriis;
sed Christum ipsum, qui est sapientia summa, bonitas immensa,
caritas infinita; qui nee decipi potest, nee vos vult ipse decipere;
et quoniam conscii vobismet estis. vos Dei amore jugum obedientiae
subiisse, ut in Superioris voluntate sequendo, voluntatem Divinam
certius sequeremini ; nolite dubitare, quin purgat fidelissima Domini
caritas, eorum ministerio. quos vobis praefecit, vos deinccps guber-
nare, et rectis itineribus ducere. Itaque Superioris vocem, ac jussa,
non secus ac Christi vocem. oxcipite

Postrema subjiciendi judicii ratio est cum facilior. tutiorque, turn
etiam apud sanctos patres in more posita, ut statuatis vobiscum
ipsi, quidquid Superior pracipit, ipsius Dei pro3cepturn esse, ct volun
tatem, atque ut ad credenda, qua? Catholica fides proponit. toto
. animo assensuque vestro statim incumbitis; sic ad ca facienda,
qutecumque Superior dixerit. cscco quodam impetu voluntatis pa-
rendi cupidaj, sine ulla prorsus disquisitione feramini. Sir. egisse
credendus est Abraham, filium Isaac im:nolare jus.'vas; aic Novi
Testainonti tempore aliquis e sanctia patribus iis, (juos commeinorat

408 NOTES.

Cassianus; ut Johannes Abbas, qui, quod erat ei hnperatum. non
reputabat utilene esset, an inutile ; ut cum aridum lignum tanto
ac tarn diuturno labore per annum irrigavit; nee utrum fieri poa-
sit, nee ne ; ut cum conatus est tarn ex aniruo ingens saxum solus
demovere loco, quod ne multi quidem simul homines impellere po-
tuissent. Quod obedientise genus ipsis interdum miraculis divini-
tus comprobatum videmus. Nam (ut alios taceam, quos ipsi non
ignoratis.) Maurus sancti Benedict! discipulus, mandate Superioris
lacum ingressus, nee mersus est: alius quidam a Superiore jussus,
leaenam ad se ducere, illam coepit, atque perduxit. Est igitur hsec
ratio subjiciendi proprii judicii, ac sine ulla questione sanciendi et
collaudandi apud se quodcumque Superior jusserit, non solum
sanctis viris usitata, sed etiam perfectse obedientiae studiosis imi-
tanda omnibus in rebus quse cum peccato manifesto conjunctse non

sunt

Romse. VII. Kalend. Aprilis, inillessimo quingentessimo quinqua-
gesimo tertio.

Loyola had addressed similar advices to individuals of the So
ciety as occasion required ; but it seems that this Letter to the Por
tuguese brethren was composed with more deliberate, care than had
been bestowed upon any of those previous epistles. ORLANDINUS
is warranted in expressing himself concerning it as he does. Ac
customed as was the General to leave the administration of Houses
to the Rectors and Provincials, and abstaining as he did from in
terference in ordinary instances, he knew how to step forward, on
those rare occasions when the welfare or very existence of the
Order was in question. Such an instance was that which drew
from him the Epistle on Obedience. ORLANDINUS (Lib. XIII. an.
1553) says :—

Ad omncs vero communiter socios Epistola de Obedientia, qu«
extat, misit : qua disputatione non facile absolutius in eo genere
quidquam subtiliusve reperias : quse deinde per caeteras Societatis
missa provincias vehementer ubique ad parendum alacritatem in-
cendit.

As a matter of course the authorship of this epistle, as well as
that of the Spiritual Exercises, has been called in question by the
adversaries of the Society. It does not however appear that these
allegations have rested upon any solid ground. There seems to
have been a reluctance to believe that Loyola had mind enough to
produce any of the writings that have been attributed to his pen.

NOTES. 409

NOTES TO CHAPTER III.

TUB CONSTITUTIONS.

So long as it was possible to do so, the Society held its CONSTI
TUTIONS in the dark; when at length this could not be done, and
when, by various means, almost the entire code had found its way
to the public, an authorized edition was published. This appeared
at Prague, in 1757. The CONSTITUTIONS had indeed been printed
frequently; but the copies had been reserved to the use of the Su
periors and Provincials. During this period of secrecy many alter
ations had been effected in the text ; these underwent a careful
scrutiny in preparation for the Prague edition, which was thence
forward to be considered as unalterable.

The world had already become familiar with a preliminary tract,
entitled — Primum ac Generale Examen iis omnibus qui in Socie-
tatem Jesu admitti pctunt proponendum; — and which, as this title
indicates, has always been put into the hand of those who apply
to be admitted into tiie Society. Under eight heads, a sort of out
line of the institute is conveyed, and those points are insisted upon,
which a candidate for admission would do well maturely to con
sider. Upon these several points each candidate is strictly ex
amined, certain rare cases excepted, as when his qualifications,
disposition, and accomplishments have already become thoroughly
known to the Superiors. The main intention of the Society is
thus declared : —

Finis hujus Societatis est, non solum saluti, et perfectioni pro-
priarum animarum cum divina gratia vacare, sed cum eadem im-
pense in salutem. et perfectionem proximorum incumbere.

It then sets forth the principal means employed for securing its
great end and purpose : —

Ad hunc fin em melius consequendum, tria Vota in ea, Obedi-
entiae, Paupertatis, et Castitatis emittuntur ; sic Paupertatem ac-
cipiendo, ut nee velit, nee possit reditus ullos ad suam sustentatio-
nem, nee ad qiaidvis aliud habere. Quod non tantum in particulari
de unoquoque, sed etiam de Ecclesiis. et Domibus Societatis Pro-
fessfe est intelligendum. Nee etiam (quamvis aliis sit licitum) pro
Missarum Sacrificiis, vel Praedicationibus, vel Lectionibus, vel
ullius Sacramenti administratione, vel quovis alio pio Officio ex
iis, quse juxta suum Institutum Societas potest exercere, stipendium
ullum vel eleemosynam, quse ad compensationem hujusmodi minis-
teriorum dari solent, ab alio quam a DEO (ob cujus obsequium om-
nia pure facere debent) possunt admittere.

18

410 NOTES.

One of the most characteristic of the Jesuit principles is conveyed
in the following passage (it is alluded to at page 314) : —

Ceterum ratio vivendi in exterioribus, justas ob causas, majug
DEI obsequium semper intuendo, communis est : nee ullas ordina-
rias pcenitentias, vel corporis afflictioncs, ex obligatione subeundas
habet; sed illas assumere quivis poterit, quse sibi videbuntur, cum
approbatione Superioris ad majorem sui spiritus profectum conve-
nire, et quas propter eundem finem Superiores eis poterunt im-
ponere.

Candidates for admission are required to declare whether they be
willing to renounce and alienate their property, and to bestow it
otherwise than they might be disposed to do: that is to say, not
upon their relatives; also whether they be willing to cut them
selves off from all ties of kindred ; or at least to submit, in this re
spect, to the directions of their Superior. The following passage is
referred to at page 306 : —

Cum autem communicatio, quse cum amicis, et sanguine junctis,
verbo aut scripto fit, potius ad quietis perturbationem, quam ad
eorum, qui spiritus vacant, profectum, prsesertim in initiis, facere
soleat : interrogentur, num contenti sint cum hujusmodi non com-
municare, nee litteras accipere. nee scribere, nisi aliqua occasione,
Superiori aliter videretur. Et quamdiu Domi fuerint, num contenti
sint, ut videantur litterse omnes, et qui ipsis scribentur et quas ipsi
aliis scribent ; ei, cui hujusmodi munus commissum est, cura relicta,
ut eas det, vel non det, quemadmodum in Domino nostro magis ex-
pedire judicabit.

Unusquisque eorum qui Societatem ingrediuntur, consilium illud
Christ! sequendo: " Q,ui dimiserit Patrum," &c. existimet sibi
patrem, matrem. fratres, et sofores, et quidquid in mundo habebat,
relinquendum ; imo sibi dictum existimet verbum Illud : " Q,ui non
edit patrem, et matrem, insupur et animam suarn, non protest meus
esse discipulus."

Etita curandum ei est, ut omnem carnis effectual erga sanguine
junctos exuat, ac ilium in spiritualem convertat : eosque diligat eo
solum amore, quern ordinata charitas exigit, ut qui mundo ac pro-
prio amori mortuus, Christo Domino Nostro soli vivit, eumque loco
parentum, fratrum, et rerum omnium habet.

The candidate is asked whether he can submit himself to that
system of delation which prevails within the Society ; as well as
whether he can take his part in carrying it forward toward others.

Enactments involving the most frightful consequences may easily
be condensed within the compass of a brief paragraph ; and this

NOTES. 411

may be done in terms apparently so guileless, and so well inten-
tioned, as to screen the greatest enormities from the observation oi
even an intelligent, reader. It is in such a style of innocence and
unconsciousness that one of the most poisonous ingredients of the
Jesuit system is dropped into the cup. How reasonable a thing
does it seem to ask one who wishes to dedicate himself to a spirit
ual function, whether he is willing that his faults, by whomsoever
noted, and apart from the acknowledgment he may make of them
to his Confessor, should be reported to his superiors 1 And if will
ing thus, for his personal benefit, to stand open to the observation
and report of others, he cannot think it too much to ask of him a
reciprocity of faithful love ; or in plain terms, that he will, in his
turn, render his aid in promoting the welfare of all around him.
It is thus quietly that the deep foundations are laid upon which a
superstructure of universal treachery is to be reared : —

Ad majorem in spiritu profectum et prsecipue ad majorem submis-
sionem et humilitatem propriam, interrogetur, an contentus sit fu-
turus, ut omnes errores, et delectus ipsius, et res qusecumque quse
notatco in eo et observatre fuerint, Superioribus, per quemvis, qui
extra Confessionem eas acceperit, manifestentur.

Num etiam boni sit consulturus (quod et ipse. et quivis alius fa-
cere debet) ab aliis corrigi, et ad aliorum correctionem juvare: ac
num manifcstare sese invicem sint parati, debito cum amore etchar-
itate, ad majorem spiritus profectum ; prasertim ubi a Superiore,
qui illorum curam gcrit, fuerit ita praescriptum aut interrogatum,
ad majorem Dei gloriam.

Page 308.

Of the six means of probation through which the candidate is re
quired to pass, the firstbeing a course of the Spiritual Exercises, the
second is — Servire in uno vel pluribus Xenodochiis per mensem
alium, ibidem cibum capiendo et dormiendo ; vel per aliquam vel
plures horas quotidie, pro temporum. locorum. et personarum ra-
tione auxilium, et ministerium omnibus fegris et sanis, prout in-
junctum eis fuerit, impendendo : ut magis se dcmittant et humilient
ac eo veluti argumento demonstrcnt se prorsus ab hoc so:culo ejus-
que pompis ac vanitate recedere ; ut omnino suo Creatori ct Dom
ino pro ipsorum salute crucifixo serviant.

Tertium est, peregrinari mensem alium sine pecunia: imo suia
temporibus ostiatim pro Christi amorc mendicare ; ut possint ad
incommoditatem comedendi et dormiendi assuefieri ; atque adco ut,

412 ' NOTES

omni spe ilia abjecta, quam in pecuniis et rebus aliis creatis possin
constituere, integre. vera cum fide et ardenti amore, earn in suo
Creatore et Domino constituant : vel utrumque mensem ministerio
hospitalium, vel alicujus eorum aut etiam utrumque peregrinationi,
prout Superiori visum furit, impendent.

A " mendicity ticket," that is to say, a testimonial from " aliquis
fide ilignus" must he brought in by the novice on his return to the
House, to this purport:—"!, A. B., certify that the bearer, C. D.,
has been begging in my neighborhood [so many days], in a pious
and edifying manner." It is thus that a false system is built up
with falsities, from the foundation to the summit: —

Cum in tertio, peregrinationis, ab ultimo loco, ad quern pervenit
vel non procul ab eo, testimonium ab aliquibus, vel uno certe fide
digno secum ferat; quod suam devotionem secutus. sine ulla cujus-
quam querela eo pervenit.

Passages referred to in Page 310.

. per triduum suis constitutis temporibus, vestigia sequendo
primorum, de quibus mentionem fecimus. ostiatim pro Christi Dom
ini nostri amore mendicare debent : ut contra quam est communis
hominum sensus, ad Divinum obsequium etlaudem magis se possint
submittere : magisque in spiritu proficere ad gloriam Divinae Ma-
jestatis. Ut etiam magis sint dispositi ad ipsum faciendum, quan-
do illis injunctum fuerit, vel conveniens aut necessarium erit, dum
per varias muridi partes. juxta quod eisprsescriptum vel constitutum
per summum Christi Vicariuin, vel ejus loco per Superiorem Socie-
tatis fuerit, discurrent. Quandoquidem exigit Nostrse Professionis
ratio, ut parati, et in procinctu simus, ad ea omnia quse quo vis tern-
pore in Domino nobis injuncta fuerint nee petendo, nee expectan-
do premium ullum in prsesenti hac et labili vita ; sed earn quse un-
decumque seterna est, ex summa Dei misericordia semper sperando.
Etadparticularia qusedam descendendo. in probationibus humilita-
tis et abnegationis sui, et in exercendis Officiis abjectis et humilibus
(cujusmodi sunt in culina servire, domum everrere, et reliqua om
nia servitia obire) promptius ea suscipi convenit, a quibus sensus
magis abhorrebit : si quidem injunctum fuerit, ut in eis se exerce-
ant.

Page 310.

Ideo melius est ut Coquus non roget sibi inservientem. ut hoc aut
illud facial, sed cura modestia jubeat, vel dicat, Hoc fac, veil illud
Si enim rogat, potius ut homo hominem alloqui videbitur : ut Co

413

quum laicum rogare Sacerdotem, ut ollas abstergat, vel res hujus-
modi faciat, nec°decens, nee justum videretur. Sed si jubeat, vel
dicat. Fac hoc, vel illud ; significant magis, quod ut Christus hom-
ini loquatuf. quandoquidem ipsius loco jubet : atque ita qui obedit,
considerare ac perpendere vocem a Coquo vel alio, qui sit ei Supe
rior, egressam debet, ut si a Christo Domino Nostro egrederetur, ut
omnino placere Divinse Majestati possit,

Page 312.

. ex parte rerum animi, quando qui ad Probationem admis-
sus fuit, se componere ad vitam sub Obedientia et juxta modum
procedendi Societatis ducendam non possit ; quod nequeat, vel
nolit proprium suum sensum, aut judicium infringere; vel proptel
alia impedimenta, qu* a natura, vel a consuetudine promana
— Constitutioncs, Pars II. cap. ii.

Page 303.

The one lesson that is reiterated in varied terms, as often as pos
sible, is that which teaches unreasoning submission to
mands of a Superior. As thus ; —

Expedit in primis ad prefect™, et valde neccessanum est ut
1.1 t es,,-nor',i\-rom fnmr.nmnue ille

omnes perfect* Obedient!* se dedant, S

ES^S^r

414 NOTES.

perinde ac si a Christo Domino egrederetur (quandoquidem ipsius
foco, ac pro ipsius amore et reverentia Obedientiam prsestamus) quam
prornptissitni simus ; re quavis atque adeo littera a Nobis inchoata,
necdurn perfecta, relicta, ad eum scopum vires omnes ac intentio-
nem in Domino convertendo, ut sancta Obedientia turn in executione,
turn in voluntate, turn in intellectu sit in Nobis sempsr omni ex parte
perfecta ; cum magna celeritate, spiritual! gaudio et perseverentia,
quidquid Nobis injunctum fuerit, obeundo: omnia justa esse Nobis
persuadendo omnem sententiam ac judicium Nostrum contrarium
caeca quadam Obedentia abnegando ; et id quidem in omnibus, qua
a Superiore disponuntur. ubi definiri non possit (quemadmodum
dictum eat) aliquod peccati genus intercedere. Et sibi quisque per-
suadeat, quod qui sub Obedientia vivunt, se ferri ac regi Divina
Providentia per Superiores suos sincere debent, perinde ac si cada
ver essent, quod quoquoversus ferri, et quacumque ratione tractari
se sinit : vel similiter atque senis baculus, qui ubicumque, et qua
cumque in re velit eo uti, qui eum manu tenet, ei inservit. Sic enim
obediens rem quamcumque, cui eum Superior ad auxilium totius
corporis Religionis velit impendere, cum animi hilaritate debet exse-
qui : pro certo habens, quod ea ratione potius, quam re alia quavis,
quam praestare possit, propriam voluntatem ac judicium diversum sec-
tando, Divinae voluntati respondent— Constit. Pars. VI. cap. i. § 1.

Page 318.

Ego, N., Professionem facio. et promitto Omnipotent! DEO, coram
ejus Virgine Matre, et universa coelesti curia, ac omnibus circum-
stantibus ; et tibi Patri Reverendo N. Prseposito Generali Societatis
JESU, locum DEI tenenti, et successoribus tuis ; (eel tibi Reverendo
Patri N. Vice Prsepositi Generalis Societatis JESU, et successorum
ejus, locum DEI tenenti;) perpetuam Paupertatem, Castitatem, et
Obedientiam, et secundum earn, peculiarem curam circa puerorum
eruditionem, juxta formam vivendi, in Litteris Apostolicis Societatis
JESU, et in ejus Constitutionibus contentam.

Page 323.

Cum exoptet Societas universas Constitutiones, Declarations, ac
vivendi ordinem, omnino juxta Nostrum institutum, nihil ulla iri re
declinando, observari ; optet etiam nihilominus suos omnes secures
esse, vel certe adjuvari, ne in laqueum iLIius peccati quod ex vi Con-
stitutionum hujusmodi, aut Ordinationum proveniat, incidant, visura
est Nobis in Domino, excepto expresso Voto, quo Societas Summo

NOTES. 415

Pontifici pro tempore existenti tenetur, ac tribus aliis essentialibus
Paupertatis, Castitatis et Obedientae nullas Constitutiones, Decla-
rationes, vel ordincm ullam vivendi, posse obligationem ad peccatum
mortale vel veniale inducere ; nisi Superior ea in Nomine Domini
Nostri Jesu Christi, vel in virtute Obedientiae juberet ; quod in rebus,
vel personis illis in quibus judieabitur, quod ad particulare uniuscu-
jusque, vel ad univcrsale bonum multuin conveniet, fieri poterit :
et loco timoris oftensse succedat amor desiderium omnis perfectionis
et ut major gloria et laus Christi Creatoris ac Domini Nostri conse-
quantur. — Constit. Pars. VI. cap. v.

Pages 327, 338.

Ex Professis qui Congregation! intererunt, unusquisque suffragi-
um unicum, solus Generalis duo habebit. Sed si numerus par es-
set, Provincialis reh'quis prseferetur ; et si inter ipsos Provinciales es-
set paritas, pars ilia, in quam Prapositus Generalis, vel (si is e vivis
excessisset) ipsius Vicarius inclinabit, esset praeterenda. Ut enim
illis niagis est necessarium Divina3 gratire auxilium, propter munus
quod fferunt; ita sperandum est DKUM ac Dominum nostrum uber-
ius id illis, ut sentiant et dicant, quae ad ipsius gloriam faciant, lar-
giturum

Quando non ad elcctionem Generalis congregatur Societas, in aliis
eventibus Prcepositus Generalis earn convocabit; praeterquam in il
lis, qui in Nona Parte exprimentur : et non congregabit frequenter
Societatem. ut dictum est, nisi rerum agendarum necessitas urgeret.
Sed cum generalis Congregatio ad electionem Prcepositi convocata,
eum jam elegerit, deinde de rebus aliis gravioribus, quam ut a Gen-
erali et iis qui cum ipso agunt, decidi debeant, tractari poterit. —
Constit. Pars VIII. cap. iv. § 2.

Page 334.

duia Societas quae mediis humanis instituta non est, per ea nee
conservari, nee augeri potest ; sed per gratiam Omnipotentis DEI ac
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, in eo solo spem constitui oportet, quod
conservaturus sit et promoturus hoc opus, quod ad obsequium et
laudem suam, et auxilium animarum inchoare dignatus est. Et
juxta spern hanc, primum medium et maxime consentaneum ora-
tionum et sacrificiorum erit ; quae hac cum intentione eanta offerri,
et singulis hebdomalis, mensibus et annis, in omnibus locis ubi So
cietas residet, certa ordinutione instituti debent.

Ad conservationem et incrementum non solum corporis, id est,

416

NOTES.

eorum quse externa sunt. sed etiam spiritus Societatis. atque ad as-
secutionem finis quern sibi praefigit auxilii animarum. ad ultimum
et supernaturalem suum finern consequendum, media ilia quae cum
DEO instrumentum conjungunt ac disponunt, ut a Divina manu
recte gubernetur, efficaciora sunt, quam quae illud disponunt crga
homines. Hujusmodi est probitas et virtus, ac prsecipue charitas
et pura intentio Divini servitii, et familiaritas cum DEO in spiritual-
ibus devotionis exercitiis, et zelus sincerus animarum ad gloriam
ejus qui eas creavit ac redemit, quovis alio emolumento posthabito.
Videtur itaque in universum curandum esse, ut omnes qui se So-
cietati addixerunt, in virtutum solidarum ac perfectarum et spirit-
ualium studium rerum incumbat; ac in hujusmodi majus momen
tum, quam in doctrina vel aliis donis naturalibus et humanis con-
stitutum esse ducant. Ilia enim interiora sunt. ex quibus effica-
ciam ad exteriora permanare ad finem nobis propositum oportet. —
Constit. Pars. X. <) 1.

To the Constitutions, throughout, there are attached notes, more
or less, at the foot of almost every page : these are called " Declar
ations," and professedly they serve to set the text free from any
ambiguity that might seem to attach to it. But in fact, the princi
pal use of this running commentary is to assist, rather than to re
move, the intended ambiguity of the text. Where, in the body of
the Constitutions, a rule or injunction is propounded, and is with
drawn — is advanced and pulled in, the attendant note or " Declar
ation" smooths the way for the operation— saying and unsaying
the same thing, in other terms. The notes having°been originally
attached to the Jesuit Code, are held to be of the same authority
as the text. Or rather perhaps, those of them which are attributed
to Loyola's own hand : these — primae Declarationes, quse simul
cum Constitutionibus promulgantur, eamdem, quam illae, auctorita-
tem habent. Et ita in utrarumque observatione, eamdem curam
adhiberi oportet. — Constit, Pars VI. cap. i.

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MEMOIR OF MISS MARY JANE GRAHAM, late of

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4

CAVEN LIBRARY

KNOX COUEGt

TORONTO

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